Locals say NREGS did no good

Covered in mud after digging a ditch near his hut, Atul Karmakar is not bothered about the Lok Sabha elections. For him, water scarcity is what he is bothered about. With cultivation on hold, the farmer from Kendrabona village — 30 kms from Bankura — says the only hope remaining is the 100 days employment that NREGS guarantees.

But with barely ten days of work provided in his village since the scheme was launched in 2005, Karmakar is among the 1,000-odd job card holders for whom the NREGS remains only a promise.

“When we received our job cards three years ago, Gangajalghati gram panchayat was led by the CPM. They organised work on just two ponds — both of which remain incomplete,” he said.

“Following the panchayat elections in May last year, the Trinamool came to power. Since then, work has started on two more ponds. Around 600 of us are working on them. If the Congress-Trinamool combine can give us more work, we’ll vote for them,” Karmakar added.

Fakir Gorai, a member of the Trinamool -led panchayat samiti concedes that NREGS work in the village has commenced only in this fiscal. “There was trouble with payment as well, as the local post office could not manage the payment. Finally, it was paid by hand,” says Gorai.

The official figure about the persondays generated by the scheme is dismal. In 2008-09, figure of persondays generated was 32 for SC, 11 for ST, 20 for women 20 and 14 for others. Out of a total 2,04,181 households (taking both Bankura and Bishnupur LS constituencies together) that received job cards, only 1,891 households are shown to have completed 100 days of work.

... contd.