There is a talk of poor monsoon season in the country. But in the backwater of Jharkhand’s Palamu, any quantum of rain is feared to trigger many problems for the MGNREGA wells here.
The district coordinator MGNREGA Palamu KN Jha held a marathon meeting with BDOs with a view to expediting the completion of MGNREGA wells.
The lok Sabha election put the gear of development in back seat and now with the Vidhan Sabha election round the corner, expected to be held in some 15 or 18 weeks it will further push this flagship scheme in the backyard.
The Pioneer spoke to him on this issue. Here is the excerpt of the conversation.
It’s said a large number of MGNREGA wells are incomplete and rains are around here in Palamu.
Yes, this is true. More than 600 wells are still away from completion and this figure of incompletion is highly discouraging. I have asked the officials to accelerate the pace of work on these wells.
Who is to be blamed for this state of affairIJ
For digging a well skilled labourers are required, which is not happened here. This shortage tells upon the status of wells. Again, a beneficiary too gets disheartened after some time. These two combine make delayed incompletion of
MGNREGA wells.
A beneficiary gets discouraged for lack of fund. Is this not trueIJ
There is no fund crisis for MGNREGA wells in Palamu.
You talked about labourers not found in plenty for digging wells, but there are reports that lack of wages is a major factorIJ
I reiterate there is no fund crisis at all.
It is alleged that old wells are passed as fresh dug up wells in PalamuIJ
let there be specific instance of this kind of allegation and I tell you there will be a probe into it.
Palamu unlike Chaibasa and other districts of Jharkhand has the least record of MGNREGA wells caving in the rainy season but with this 600 plus wells away from completion the fear of their getting collapsing is high.
I held a meeting with the BDOs here and have given them a task of this.
MGNREGA wells have very often proved a death trap for the labourers here in this Palamu division.
In latehar district, one fell in such a well only to die a premature death.
Big diameter well if not dug up carefully is most vulnerable to risk of collapsing, said a NREGA Watch member J Herunj.