Rural labourers from Taj Sultanpur, Syed Chincholi and other villages staged a demonstration outside the office of the taluk panchayat here on Monday protesting against zilla panchayat officials for denying them work under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA).
They alleged that the officials, on the pretext of Model Code of Conduct imposed in view of Assembly polls, were not acting upon their applications seeking work under the job scheme.
“We applied for job about 15 days ago. Nobody in the gram panchayat is entertaining our applications. Some officials try to hide behind elections and other express lack of funds. The Panchayat Development Officer told us that he could give work to a limited number of people as he had only ₹ 3 lakh and asked us to decide whom he should give the job to,” an agitating woman said during the protest.
Another woman said that the PDO did not give acknowledgement after receiving the application for work under the job scheme.
“Whatever the PDO spoke goes against the MGNREG Act. He cannot deny work under the job scheme on the pretext of insufficient funds or any other reason. There are reports that similar things are happening in other villages also,” K. Neela, vice-president of Janvadi Mahila Sanghatan, told The Hindu during the agitation. A memorandum was submitted to the officers concerned.
