Job card holders stage protest at Hiyanglam
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 09 2011: Protesting against deprivation of their rights and demanding action against the officials involved over such cases, job card holders of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) under Hiyanglam Gram Panchayat staged a Wakat Meepham at Hiyanglam Bazar yesterday.

Placards inscribed with slogans like 'Say no to deprivation of rights of the people through petty politics', 'Give job card holders their due rights', 'Pay wages in accordance to rules', 'Punish the wrongdoers', etc were used during the protest demonstration.

Talking to mediapersons on the sideline of the protest demonstration, the aggrieved job card holders alleged that Pradhan of Hiyanglam Gram Panchayat Elangbam Ongbi Rajani provided them job for only 45 days in three years contrary to the norm of providing job for 100 days in a year.

This is nothing but deprivation of the rights of job card holders, they asserted.

Furthermore, the aggrieved job card holders alleged that the Pradhan has been acting in violation of the provisions under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and employing JCBs instead of job card holders in construction of drainage and ponds so as to usurp the wages to be given to the job card holders.

The Pradhan has also fraudulently withdrawn the fund sanctioned under the scheme by issuing job cards in excess.

Instead of issuing only one job card in a family, the Pradhan has issued four job cards in a family and the wages withdrawn without executing any work.

Some of the people did not even know that the Pradhan has issued job cards against their names, the aggrieved job card holders said.

They went on to inform that apart from all these irregularities, the Pradhan has selected only her immediate family members and close relatives in the list of the beneficiaries under IAY Housing Scheme.

In deducting 37 percent of the fund provided under the scheme in the name of UGs, 30 percent is actually meant for herself, the aggrieved job card holders alleged.

It is condemnable that some close associates of the Pradhan, who has been arrested and kept in the custody of the police, have submitted memorandum to the Chief Minister alleging that the local MLA is behind the arrest.

The local MLA is not at all related to the arrest of Rajani and truth should not be suppressed by such political lobbying, the protestors observed.

Comment