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Employment activist caned to death


An activist working for the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was killed after being caned continuously at Jerua village in Latehar district.

The activist, Niyamat Ansari, a close aide of noted economist Jean Dreze, died after a group beat him with lathis, police said.

The rebels reportedly dragged him out of his residence at 7 PM and started beating him up mercilessly. He was admitted to a local hospital where he died at 10 PM, the sources said.

The group searched for another activist, Bhukhan Singh, in the village but could not find him.

Ansari was active in Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in Latehar's Maneka block and was convenor of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee ACT (MG-NREGA), the sources said.

The Maoists had on July 7, 2010 pasted posters warning Ansari and Singh not to ''exploit forest land or face consequences'', the sources said.

Three years ago, another MG-NREGA activist, who worked with Dreze, had been killed by unidentified persons in neighbouring Palamau district which triggered widespread protests by several people, including Dreze.

NREGS is the flagship scheme of the government for the poor and aims at enhancing livelihood security of people in rural belts by guaranteeing 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household.

An NDTV report made no mention of Maoists, and said Ansari had been killed because he had exposed officials pocketing money meant for the employment scheme.

"It all started after Ansari and his friends, on February 20, exposed a case of brazen embezzlement of NREGS funds. They lodged an FIR against the former Block Development Officer (BDO) of Manika, Kailash Sahu, in connection with the case," the NDTV report said.