Purushottam Patra, Gariaband. The administration may make many claims about the successful implementation of schemes for the proper upliftment of the tribes, but the locks hanging in the houses of more than 50 Kamar families, residents of the tribal-dominated Panchayat Aamora and Od’s dependent villages Hathodadih, Nagarara and Kukrar, prove the truth of the claims of the administration. are doing. In the mentioned village, most of the houses are locked, in some houses children and old people were seen. Most of the migrants have migrated in pairs. Roop Singh Kamar, a villager of Hathora Dih, said that there is a shortage of work under MNREGA here. The situation becomes such that it becomes difficult to collect vegetables at home. Earlier, one could somehow survive by making bamboo utensils, but now the raw material is not available. People of Andhra contact through brokers, give advance money of Rs 25-25 thousand to each family.
The system is slow, commission has to be paid for material work – Sarpanch
Sarpanch of Od Panchayat, Ram Singh Sori belongs to a special tribe. Sori said that by becoming Sarpanch, he will get a lot of work done for the tribe and will also carry forward the traditional work of making bamboo utensils. Sori said that he could not do this, it has been more than 3 years since he could not improve his condition. There is labor based work in MNREGA, under the material work, the work of construction of building and report has also been given by the collector who reached the village. But there is no one to work. There is no one to take their problem to the administration. Even if you go and tell about the problem, there will be no one to listen. There is work for laborers but there are no laborers. Material work is not available because we are not able to give the 5 percent commission demanded in the district. The Sarpanch accepts the fact of migration from Hathoda Dih and Nagarar. Told that out of 300 labourers, the accounts of 80 are not linked to the bank. Job cards of many have also not been made. Most of the workers have migrated after the assembly elections. Ration card has been left behind so it has been updated, but the process of house allotment is incomplete. These people will not come till the Lok Sabha elections, they have to come only in July.
More than 15 students also included in migration list, master was able to bring 2 back
More than 15 school students from the ashrams present in both the panchayats have also migrated along with their parents. Of these, 10 are from Od Ashram. Confirming this, Ashram Superintendent Santu Ram Dhruv said that we had gone to bring the children one and a half month ago on the information of going to Telangana, it was also risky to bring them back. After a lot of effort, only two children could be brought back. Our 8 children are still with their parents who have migrated.
Know the reason for migration which was understood after discussion with the villagers
Delay in payment, account is also not linked – There are about 700 laborers in these Panchayats together, 150 laborers’ Aadhaar is not linked to their account. In such a situation, a muster roll is created and the wages are not credited to the account. Due to the long time taken for payment, many people become disillusioned with their work.
Settled at a distance, no coordination with the administration – Ama Mora and Od Panchayat do not have their own Panchayat Secretary, Panchayat Secretary of Dhawalpur Geeta Markam has been given additional charge of both the Panchayats. The distance of these Panchayats from Dhawalpur is 30 km. Recently construction of the road has started, earlier it took a whole day to reach here. Villagers said that the secretary is able to devote only two days of time to a panchayat in a week. In such a situation, their problem cannot be solved properly.
Traditional work has come to a standstill – The reason behind the migration of Kamar tribe is the stoppage of their traditional work. The villagers told that they used to earn enough money by making bamboo utensils. But now raw material is not available to them. A lot of work was done over the years for their upliftment but the actual help got stuck in the files due to rocky and inaccessible roads. The work was shown on paper but due to lack of investigation and monitoring, Kamar was deprived of his rights.
Need to review work allocation in MNREGA
During the time of Congress government, many construction schemes run by Panchayat were stopped. Employment guarantee work was the only option, hence the demand for this work increased. There were two categories of work. The custom of getting commission for the work spent on material instead of labour-based work started. During the Congress tenure, up to 10 percent commission was given for this work, and the District Panchayat was very kind to those who were able to get it. But those who could not complete the task were given wage work. The Panchayats were not able to take much interest in getting this work done. After the change of government, many systems were changed but the commission in MNREGA reduced from 10 to 5 percent. There has been no confirmation or complaint about the taking yet, but if we review the work allocation, it will be known that there are many Panchayats which got more material and beneficial work than the ratio. Many Panchayats will still be seen yearning for such work.