Manipur panchayat members to protest if pending MGNREGA wages are not paid

This will hamper the election works since Manipur will have the first round of polls on February 27.

he Manipur State Panchayat Parishad elected members and functionaries in the hill districts have announced that they will join the ongoing agitations in the six valley districts from February 9 if the pending amount related to MGNREGA wages is not released by the government on or before February 8. This will hamper the election works since Manipur will have the first round of polls on February 27. The agitating members and functionaries said that the Centre had sanctioned ₹333,08,74,000 on August 25,2021 for payment of wages to the people in the State for the MGNREGA works.

Abdul Latif, president of the Manipur State Panchayat Parishad, said, “Out of this amount the Manipur government has released just ₹113.87 crore for the payment of the MGNREGA wages. In a meeting of the tribal leaders held in the Kangpokpi district on Thursday, February 2, 2022, it was decided that they will join the agitations if the pending fund is not released. The tribal leaders said that apart from agitations they shall blockade the National Highways which are the lifelines of the mountainous State.

Earlier, the valley’s panchayat members had boycotted the Republic day functions and called a 38-hour lockdown on January 27 demanding the fund release.

Reacting to these growing demands the Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren said, “The RBI has rules to ban all transactions if there is an overdraft. We will release some money. The fund had been used in other sectors”. However agitating members say that the central scheme of MGNREGA is spoilt in this manner. They said that they shall continuethe agitations since fund cannot and should not be misused.