Taking a suo motu cognisance of media reports that four members of a family from Maharashtra killed themselves owing to delayed payments under the MGNREGA scheme, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday served notice on the Maharashtra Government, seeking an explanation on the circumstances leading to the mass suicides in question.
In its notice issued to the State Chief Secretary, the NHRC referred to the media report quoting specific instances that took place in Maharashtra, where four members of a landless family from in Buldhana district committed suicide, and sought an explanation from the state government within next six weeks.
According to the media report, the landless family members in questioned had worked in Sillod tehsil of Aurangabad district under the MGNREGA for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 but did not get their wages.
They also had worked for a month in their village but did not get anything.
The family had taken loans totaling Rs.1.5 lakh, but failed to repay the loans, they hanged themselves to avoid further humiliation. A Committee, set-up under the Additional CEO, Aurangabad, which reported that several workers were not paid their wages and the money had been deposited into fake accounts.
The media report also carried some instances of suicides from Jharkhand due to non-payment of wages under the MGNREGA.
Apart from issued a show-cause notice to the Maharashtra government on the reported mass suicides, the NHRC has also served on similar notices on the Union Ministry of Rural Development and Chief Secretaries of the Governments of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Kerala, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and called for reports in the matter within six weeks.
According to media report, 27 lakh labourers in West Bengal, 18.20 lakh in Bihar, 13.40 lakh in Kerala, 11 lakh in Rajasthan and 8.7 lakh in Andhra Pradesh are still waiting for their wages under the MGNREGA.