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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Subal not NREGS victim: state

Subal not NREGS victim: state

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published Published on Mar 15, 2011   modified Modified on Mar 15, 2011
On a day the Bokaro district administration went on an overdrive to tighten the noose around unscrupulous MGNREGS contractors, the state government claimed in the Assembly that the death of worker Subal Mahto wasn’t remotely connected to rampant corruption in the Centre’s flagship rural job scheme.

Reprimanded by Union rural development secretary B.K. Sinha over the recent killings of the Bokaro labourer and MGNREGS crusader Niyamat Ansari, the government today made a desperate endeavour to wash its hands of the sordid subject.

Replying to a question from JMM’s Dumri MLA Jagannath Mahto, HRD minister Baidyanath Ram told the House that Subal’s death had “nothing to do with any corruption in execution of MGNREGS” in Bhatua village of Bokaro. “It was a criminal matter,” he insisted.

The minister also denied any government plan to compensate family members of the labourer, whose death along with Niyamat’s recently hogged headlines, exposing the way the employment guarantee scheme is executed in the state.

In stark contrast to the proceedings in the Assembly, Bokaro deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal ordered random inspection of all MGNREGS projects in the district from tomorrow.

Understandably singed by the Subal Mahto murder, Kaushal constituted a 20-member crack squad, further divided into five teams. “The block-level officials have been directed to conduct surprise inspections at project sites, verify names of labourers and check whether all rural job scheme provisions, including regular payment of wages, are being met,” the deputy commissioner said.

On February 18, 50-year-old Subal was severely beaten up by contractor Bhagirath Rajwar and his relatives when he demanded his wages for digging an MGNREGS-sponsored well on Rajwar’s land in Bhatua. He later succumbed to his injuries.

Former minister and Ajsu MLA from Chandankyari Umakant Rajak pulled up the government, saying the Rs 1.4-lakh well project in Bokaro was handed over to petty contractors for just Rs 35,000.

Parrying the punch, the HRD minister claimed that Subal’s post office account suggested that he had received payment for work done in the project for at least four weeks — Rs 99 a day in first three weeks and Rs 120 a day in the fourth week. He admitted to “wrong practices” in implementation of MGNREGS, but reiterated Subal’s death was outside that purview.

The Dumri MLA demanded that the government pay damages of Rs 10 lakh to the labourer’s family besides making provisions for a job. On behalf of the state, Ram remained non-committal.

Meanwhile, the chief minister’s Question Hour saw the Opposition and treasury benches focussing on policy matters. Issues like providing bicycles to girl students, reconstituting the Tribal Advisory Council, enforcing the proposed rehabilitation and resettlement policy, making reservations for minorities and planning ways to battle water crisis cropped up.

Arjun Munda said he had cleared a file on reconstitution of the tribal council while the state was serious about addressing woes of the parched region and that the disaster management department would come up with a water policy.
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The Telegraph, 15 March, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110315/jsp/frontpage/story_13716487.jsp


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