Job cards to 28 villagers were delivered on October 6, though they had applied a couple of months ago. On some of the job cards, the entries were back-dated.

In May, there was work to strengthen a canal under the food-for-work programme. The job card showed each of them received 5 kg of rice worth Rs 32.25 and cash of Rs 35.75. It adds to Rs 68 as stipulated under the NREGS. “But we received no foodgrain. We got only cash which varied from Rs 20-25 each day. The Mukhiya said that it was according to the measurement of the soil they had dug”, said Tulsi .

Apart from this single work, nothing under the EGS has been carried out. Officials said most of the work under EGS is “kachcha” (mud work) and it remains suspended in June-October due to the rainy season.

Ashok Singh, the mukhiya, first admitted that the canal work was done under the NREGS. Then he denied it. “It must be some other government scheme,” he said. He said labourers were needed for a repairing a village road but none from Banwara were coming despite notices. “Now I will move to cancel their job cards. They want free foodgrain,” he said.

Even as he was talking, a group of labourers from Banwara and other villages came at his house and said they had gone to work but found nobody.