Taking serious exception to what they termed “bureaucratic apathy” over the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), rural workers picked up a heated argument with Chief Executive Officer of Kalaburagi Zilla Panchayat Girish Badole, during their protest for the second day in Kalaburagi on Tuesday.
The workers are on an indefinite agitation outside the office of the Zilla Panchayat demanding work under the job scheme, clearance of pending payment for the works already completed, a special drive for distributing job cards among the rural labourers and seeking action against the officers who had not acted upon the complaints lodged by the labourers within 15 days as per MGNREGA.
When Deputy Secretary Zilla Panchayat met the agitating labourers and sought the list of their demands on the first day of the agitation on Monday, the labourers reminded him of the previous demonstrations staged and the memorandums submitted to his office. The officer told them he could not find the memorandums and sought a fresh list, enraging the agitating labourers who refused to give the list.
On Monday, Abhay Kumar, a leader of Grameena Koolikaarmikara Sanghatane (GRAKOOS) under which the labourers got organised for their rights, joined the agitating labourers. When Mr. Badole, the CEO of ZP, visited the agitation site, the labourers told him how irresponsible his office was as it lost the memorandums submitted by the labourers.
In an attempt to calm down the protesters, Mr. Badole said that he would convene a meeting of Executive Officers and PDOs on November 10 and discuss the issues raised by the labourers. His words further enraged them.
“It means you want these women to continue the agitation in the scorching sun for another 10 days. We are ready for it. We will not call off the strike till our demands are met,” Mr. Abhay categorically told the CEO and announced his indefinite hunger strike.
The issues were brought to the notice of the Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj L.K. Atheeq who in turn discussed them with MGNREGA Commissioner Shilpa Nag over phone.
“People from Kalaburagi and Yadgir districts are migrating to Bengaluru and other cities in search of livelihood options as they are not finding any work in their villages. The very purpose of MGNREGA is to address this issue and its implementation is more needed in backward Kalyana Karnataka. ZP is duty-bound to implement the job scheme. However, the officers show no interest in it. People have been waiting for the last five months for work under the scheme. They did not get work nor received any unemployment allowance as per the Act. Labourers are not being paid for the work they completed because of the mistakes committed by the data entry operators. Nobody in the ZP takes labourers’ complaints seriously,” Mr. Abhay said.
