Karnataka - Mangalore   

Officials not promoting MGREGA scheme properly, says sangha

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

CONCERN: Haridas Bhat, vice-president of the Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha, addressing a press conference in Mangalore on Friday.

MANGALORE: The Dakshina Kannada district unit of the Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha (KPRS) on Friday accused officials in the district of deliberately discouraging people from making use of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGREGA).

S.M. Haridas Bhat, vice-president of the unit, told presspersons here that officials were telling people not to accept any job under the scheme because the wages under it were far lower than what was being offered in the job market. Alleging that the officials were deliberately discouraging people because they had nothing to “gain” from popularising the scheme, he said the wages under the scheme were directly credited into the workers’ bank accounts. The lobby of landowners, who feared that they would have to pay more to get agricultural workers if the scheme was popularised, was spreading false information about the scheme among the people. Mr. Bhat and K. Yadav Shetty, district general secretary of the sangha, said they had taken up the matter with the chief executive officer of the zilla panchayat and hoped that steps would be taken to popularise the scheme all over the district.

Mr. Bhat said the scheme was popular in Belthangady taluk with about 5,000 workers, including 3,000 women, benefiting from the scheme. A farmers’ association had popularised it there through its members, he added.

Mr. Shetty said that thousands of workers engaged in sectors such as beedi making units in the district were still getting wages of Rs. 40 to Rs. 80 a day. Under the MGREGA, many such workers were paid Rs. 82 to Rs. 125 a day. It was possible to ensure that every worker got Rs. 125 a day under this scheme by increasing the task assigned to a worker on a given day. “Even women are getting Rs. 125 a day,” he said pointing out that they would get only half of that amount in the open market. The office-bearers of the association demanded that the wages be increased to Rs. 150 a day and the maximum number of days that the workers were assured of employment under the scheme be increased to 200 a year from 100. Mr. Shetty demanded that below the poverty line (BPL) ration card-holders be given 35 kg of rice a month at Rs. 2 a kg. The governments of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had already implemented such a scheme, he said. He urged the Government to announce a support price of Rs. 150 a kg for arecanut. The production cost of arecanut had increased to Rs. 100 a kg in the district whereas the support price was only Rs. 60 a kg, he said.

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