Tura, July 14: Angry villagers in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills today
threatened to approach court if block development officer (BDO) fails
to address their problems with regards to wage disbursement under
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) at
Silkata village.
At least 350 job card holders have come together to raise their
protest against key functionaries of the village employment council
(VEC) and a gram sevak.
In absence of panchayat raj in Meghalaya, village employment council
acts as a facilitating body for the implementation of the MGNREGA
scheme.
Gram sevak Hussain Ali Sheikh and secretary of Silkata VEC Sofiqul
Islam is facing the wrath of the job card holders. The villagers have
filed a complaint with the block development officer of Selsella D.
Roy.
Under the scheme, two village roads are being constructed at a cost of
Rs. 19,78,380 and Rs. 19,82,380 respectively. The job card holders,
who have undertaken work for 14 days said that they were paid wage for
4 and a half days, which comes to about Rs. 700. They were supposed to
receive Rs. 2030.
Of the two roads, work for only one has begun.
“Islam and Sheikh have withdrawn wage for 14 days for all the job
card holders but we have been paid only Rs. 700”, said Surot Zama, a
job card holder. Another job card holder Nur Zaman said, “They have
processed application for withdrawal of 22 days of wage by forging our
identities”. The work for which has not taken place at all.
Zaman also alleged that the Sheikh and a technical assistance have
worked together to state that the road has been completed. “The work
for this has not even started. However they are projecting it to be
completed”, said Anowar Islam of Silkata village.
He said that we have filed a complaint with the BDO and has served an
ultimatum for violation of our rights. “This is not the first time
that this has happened. In many cases the gram sevak, technical
assistant and member of VEC are working together for fund
misappropriation”, said a local leader.
The list of beneficiaries also has names of people who are dead.
“We have asked for a magisterial probe into the anomalies. We believe
that there is political influence, which has allowed the VEC members
to work in tandem. Until a probe is conducted all payments should be
stopped”, said Bashirul Islam, a village elder.
“They have violated all norms under the MGNREGS guidelines and taken
illegal advantage of the current situation. They have deprived us of
Rs 1330 of our wages, an amount that is significant in nature and
means a lot to us”, said Abdur Rafique, a job card holder.
BDO of Selsella, D Roy said, “We have sent not one but three assistant
project officers to the VEC for a cross check, but for now the
information that we are getting is that only about ten people have not
been paid. However, we are still awaiting full details of the report
from the assigned officers, which we will submit to the deputy
commissioner for further action”.(SP News)
