State of NREGS implementation in Garhwa

By Nityanand Dubey
Garhwa, April 25, 2009
The author is a journalist from Garhwa, Jharkhand. He can be contacted at Phone: 9234818660. Email: dubeynityanand@gmail.com

Ruchan Ram, Baijnath Ram, Deochand Singh and Jaynath Singh all landless labourers in a Maoist-hit Perswar village village under Bhandariya police station of the district, are fed up with the state government. They have been given less than 20 days' work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in place of the promised 100 days. Ruchan who is also Pradhan, Bsijnsth of the village is in their late 40s and others early 30s. All are belonging from SC/ST and job card holders under NREGS. But they have been waiting for months to get some work under the scheme.

"We were provided about 10 days work under the NREGS before monsoon and nearly a week earlier this year. After that no work was provided to us. The scheme is running on paper only," they said. This village known as a hotbed of Maoist insurgency.

The situation is similar for the poorest of the poor in neighbouring others villages Tehari, Bodari and Hesatu.

Shyam Lal Singh another ST and landless labourer, who is in his 50s, said that neither his son nor his wife - all job card holders - was provided work for more than a month in the last one year. "It was difficult to get work," he said.

During last six months, many job card holders have held protest demonstrations against the state government's failure to implement the scheme effectively.

District Rural Development Agency(DRDA)sources confirmed to Hindustan Times district administration had managed to provide only 25 days of work on an average to job card holders against the stipulated 100 days." Official sources in the DRDA said that DRDA had not paid any compensation to anybody because he or she had not been given work, though that has been prescribed in the NREGS guidelines. It was announced by the government that anyone with a job card could claim unemployment allowance in case he or she was not provided work within 15 days from the date of application.

"Till now, not a single person seeking unemployment allowance has approached any block development officer in the district. How can we give compensation?" said a BDO. According to a report, nearly 40 percent of population in the district lives below the poverty line and hundreds of thousands of poor people migrate to other states to earn a livelihood. The job card scheme was expected to check the migration by ensuring at least 100 days of work in a year.

Bihar and Jharkhand News Service [BJNS] - Garhwa News