Shillong, Oct 12: A group of youths from Nongpoh proper – district headquarter of Ri-Bhoi- were allegedly threatened to be ostracized from the village by the Dorbar Shnong headman Bull Lyngdoh and some of it members for daring to seek information through the RTI to the implementation of MGNREGA in their village.
Three of the youths- Markus Marten, Herroy Nongrum, Recordingstar Wahlang- have submitted a petition to the Meghalaya chief secretary WMS Pariat informing him about the alleged threat of ostracism to them by the village elders.
Briefing the media about the threat Friday, the youths said, “We urged the government to intervene into the matter as we have every right as citizens of the village to know about the implementation of the scheme meant for the people.”
The RTI was filed after the job card holders in the village were sent away by the members of the Village Employment Council (VEC) informed vice president of Seng Samla Shnong Markus Marten..
Marten alleged that during the September 28 meeting, members of the dorbar shnong including headman Bull Lyngdoh asked them to leave the meeting and threatened that if they did not comply their rights of being members of the village would be taken away.
Marten said, “We had gone to the meeting thinking that it was on the issues concerning the village. It is only when we reached there we were taken aback to learnt that the meeting was convened to discuss on the MGNREGA.” He informed that before they were asked to leave, one of the job card holders even sought clarification from the members of the VEC as to who had signed the wages on his behalf in the job card holders list.
Marten said most of the job card holders were allotted only one or two weeks wages when the scheme is for 100 days which is a clear indication that there are irregularities in the implementation of the scheme.
Marten revealed that when the youths sought clarification about the implementation of the scheme on June 7 the Dorbar Shnong even said that how they dared to questioned them and their activities.
Marten further informed,” Even the Seng Longkmie had termed us as bunch of trouble makers as we had sought the information saying we were trying to malign the image of the dorbar shnong.”- By Our Reporter
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