State yet to pay Rs 47 cr dues to MGNREGA workers: Jakhar
Tuesday, 03/11/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
Abohar : The state government failed to provide work to MGNREGA job card holders in 6,538 of 13,056 villages for even a single day. As many as 11,15,192 cards were issued by the end of last financial year but most of them were denied job allegedly owing to political considerations.
This was stated here today by Sunil Jakhar, Leader of the Opposition. He claimed that such job card holders could not earn wages by picking cotton even as about 70 per cent of cotton had been damaged due to the whitefly attack this year. The Union Government had this year released Rs 200 crore to Punjab under the MGNREGA schemes but the SAD-BJP government is yet to clear arrears worth Rs 47.06 crore to MGNREGA workers, he added. Such workers have their own reasons to observe “Black Diwali” this month, he said.
Jakhar said the MGNREGA guaranteed a minimum of 100-day job to card holders but the average in Punjab is just five per cent of it. He said this was shameful for the political top brass, who boasted of good governance and welfare of poor people. He demanded immediate payment of arrears to workers and warned against diverting funds to purchase other material.
