TURA, JULY 14: Angry villagers in Meghalaya’s West Garo hills district on Monday threatened to go to the court if Block Development Officer (BDO) fails to address their grievances of having paid only for two days wage when they had worked for fourteen days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) at Silkata village.
At least 350 job card holders have come together to raise their protest against key functionaries of the village employment council
(VEC) and a gram sevak.
In absence of panchayat raj in Meghalaya, the Village Employment Council acts as a facilitating body for the implementation of the MGNREGA scheme.
Gram sevak Hussain Ali Sheikh and secretary of Silkata VEC Sofiqul Islam is facing the wrath of the job card holders. The villagers have
filed a complaint with Selsella BDO D Roy.
Under the scheme, two village roads are being constructed at a cost of Rs. 19, 78,380 and Rs. 19, 82,380 respectively. The job card holders, who have undertaken work for 14 days said that they were paid wage for 4 and a half days, which comes to about Rs. 700. They were supposed to receive Rs. 2030.
Of the two roads, work for only one has begun. “Islam and Sheikh have withdrawn wage for 14 days for all the job card holders but we have been paid only Rs. 700”, said Surot Zama, a job card holder.
Another job card holder Nur Zaman said, “They have processed application for withdrawal of 22 days of wage by forging our identities”. The work for which has not taken place at all.
Zaman also alleged that the Sheikh and a technical assistance have worked together to state that the road has been completed. “The work for this has not even started. However they are projecting it to be completed”, said Anowar Islam of Silkata village.
He said that they have filed a complaint with the BDO and has served an ultimatum for violation of their rights. “This is not the first time
that this has happened. In many cases the gram sevak, technical assistant and member of VEC are working together for fund misappropriation”, said a local leader.
The list of beneficiaries also has names of people who are dead.
“We have asked for a magisterial probe into the anomalies. We believe that there is political influence, which has allowed the VEC members to work in tandem. Until a probe is conducted all payments should be stopped”, said Bashirul Islam, a village elder.
“They have violated all norms under the MGNREGS guidelines and taken illegal advantage of the current situation. They have deprived us of Rs 1330 of our wages, an amount that is significant in nature and means a lot to us”, said Abdur Rafique, a job card holder.
Selsella BDO D Roy said, “We have sent not one but three assistant project officers to the VEC for a cross check, but for now the
information that we are getting is that only about ten people have not been paid. However, we are still awaiting full details of the report
from the assigned officers, which we will submit to the deputy commissioner for further action“.- From Our Correspondent
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