Plans of utilising Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act to mitigate effects of drought that Jharkhand is suffering from since last year seem to be losing steam due to the strike of personnel responsible for running the employment scheme in the State.
Called by Jharkhand Rajya MGNREGA Karamchari Sangh, the agitation has been going on for the past 25 days over demands of wage hike, maternal leave, accidental insurance and regularisation, slowing down work in 17,000 odd villages in the State.
Even ‘amicable’ talks between a delegation from the association and Rural Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda on March 15 proved unfruitful in finding any middle ground. Now, State Government is planning to face the agitators with a firm hand.
“Since March 10, they are hampering the spirit of the Act and making things difficult for the needy people of the State. If the strike is not called off now, the Department will be forced to take action against the agitators,” stated MGNREGA Commissioner Siddhartha Tripathi.
In an order issued on Thursday by Virendra Kumar Singh, Deputy Development Commissioner, Ranchi, the honorarium of the agitating MGNREGA staff for the period of strike will be withheld on grounds of hampering the employment scheme in tough times following drought. If the personnel on strike do not report for duty within 24 hours, their contract will be nullified, the DDC ordered all Block Development Officers of Ranchi.
“The strike was called without even informing us in advance. In our last meeting, they demanded that deadline is fixed for fulfilling their demands, which we decided to be May 7. Most of them even agreed to it but a handful of them did not,” stated the MGNREGA Commissioner.
The faction that agreed to the deadline joined work but the other one went on to stage hunger strike near Governor’s House. But the lacking workforce is failing to bear the burden of alleviating ill effects of drought through MGNREGA in the State.
New provisions to satisfy at least the wage hike demands are in the pipeline. “Jharkhand stands fourth in the nation regarding wages paid to its MGNREGA workforce. We have conversed about making the wages performance oriented and provisions to this effect will be introduced shortly,” confided the MGNREGA Commissioner
As per plan, at least one project was to be opened in every village, with focus on water conservation and land development. Before the strike, much ground had been covered in turning MGNREGA into a lifesaver for farmers in the drought-hit districts of Jharkhand, mentioned Tripathi.
“Since drought was declared in the State, performance has reached 300 per cent. Around 15 per cent families worked for more than 100 days against the target of 150 we had set for ourselves. 25 per cent of the total man-days generated were from families that worked for more than 100 days. This clearly indicates that people in need of work were able to avail the benefits of MGNREGA in Jharkhand,” he said.