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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Bengal always a laggard in job guarantee scheme -Dwaipayan Ghosh

Bengal always a laggard in job guarantee scheme -Dwaipayan Ghosh

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published Published on Feb 3, 2013   modified Modified on Feb 3, 2013
-The Times of India

KOLKATA: While the country celebrates the seventh anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Bengal continues to be one of the poor performers.

The Paschimbanga Khet Majdoor Union alleges that a group of vested interests, "comprising landed farmers, industrialists and a section of the intelligentsia" were working in tandem to subvert the positives of NREGA in the state.

The union, which has criticized both the Left Front and Trinamool Congress governments on this issue for years, has warned of massive protests in South 24-Parganas, West Midnapore, Purulia, Nadia and Bankura in the next 10 days. The union alleges that in 2011-12, Bengal generated a mere 14 days of work per family against the national average of 25 days. This adds up to 1,463.22 lakh man days, far short of the target of 1,900 lakh.

In 2012, the target was brought down by 646.46 lakh man days. The total number of person days of employment created was also declining from 1533.08 lakh person days to 1433.59 lakh person days in 2011-12. This year, with a few weeks to go for the fiscal to end, only 1218.84 lakh man-days have been created.

The Left had managed an average of just 36 man-days but the present government has failed to reach even these basic figures, says the union.

While the Centre had released Rs 1,054 crore till September 2012 on the basis of the state's demand for 61,000 panchayats, it could not make any allocation for the entire year because of the uncertainty surrounding the man-days the state would be able to achieve.

Krishak leader Khusi Ram Sardar said very few households receive their full entitlement of 100 days of work. For the year 2012-13, so far only 70,976 households have got full entitlement - 1.5% of those enrolled.

"The decline in employment can be traced to actions taken by both governments. Since January 2010, the real wage has been settled at Rs 100 but recent labour commission rulings and Supreme Court judgments put the minimum wage at Rs 300-350 per day," said Sardar.

The panchayats that performed last year have stopped implementing NREGA projects. A recent Delhi School of Economics study on Bengal, Tripura and Kerala reveals that the panchayats in Darjeeling performed excellently last year and generated 23 days of employment. Despite that, the state registered only 14 days of employment generation, reflecting the dismal performance of panchayats in other districts last year.

Several farmers say payments come very late, too. "The government has accepted this. In 2010 they paid late wages in 56% cases, this year the government admits to 55% cases," said Tarik Mahato of Purulia. Farmers allege that despite seven years of implementation of NREGA, panchayat and block level officers are reluctant to complete basic tasks like processing job cards.

The Times of India, 3 February, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Bengal-always-a-laggard-in-job-guarantee-scheme/articleshow/18312651.cms


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