Job cards remain blank

TRACKING NREGP PART-III

In some villages of Uttar Pradesh, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme is generating jobs a plenty, but without any guarantee in the form of job cards.

The public tribunal organised by VANI and Uttar Pradesh Voluntary Action Network in Lucknow received several cases where job cards were scarce but there was no dearth of work and even wage payment.

In Devarpatti gram panchayat in Bihar block of Pratapgarh district, job card seeker Santram Singh, an activist from UPVAN member Paryavaran Evam Pradyoki Utthan Samiti, Allahabad, says a lot of work has been done "" a 2-km and a 150-metre drains and a 200-metre kachcha road have been built.

"There is plenty of work, but there is no guarantee as no job cards have been issued by pradhan Anita Devi. So there is no question of villagers applying for work, or seeking compensation for not getting work within 15 days of demand,'' says Santram.

"Giving a job card entails great risks. It means giving the villager the right to decide when he wants work and money. But this does not always coincide with the availability of work and money with the panchayat," says panchayat pradhan from Ramdas Patti, Murli Yadav.

In Ramdas Patti, approvals for projects have been stuck due to sheer inability to raise a 30 per cent commission being demanded by the junior engineer, he says.

In Sarai Nahar panchayat of Pratapgarh district too, there have been no job cards. But 15 workers have worked for 14 days at the rate of Rs 50 per day, say activists from UPVAN who petitioned from Pratapgarh at the tribunal.

In Jamla Mau village, the panchayat got funds worth Rs 3 lakh and 45 people worked on a drain and road. But again, no cards were issued. Pradhan Badrish Narayan refused to comment.

While many panchayats were miserly with cards, fearing demand for jobs, in Chandauili district's Naugarh block, a Naxal affected area, there were cards for anyone who asked.

What was not there was work, says activists of Mission 2020, a network of 100 organisations and a petitioner at the tribunal.

Pradhan Chotelal Kharwar in Mangrahi panchayat, for instance, spent Rs 50,000 on 70 workers who dug a pond. Each of them got Rs 58 a day. But he had no money to start any fresh project. Petitioners from the village said that Kharwar also did not enter the work in the job cards he had issued!

In Mahoba district, the petitioners from villagers there cited cases where fake job cards were being given, without registration number or date. Now workers can claim nothing but still have a card.

Anurag Mishra, coordinator of UPVAN, said, "A total of Rs 770 crore was released to the state by the Union rural development ministry. So there is at least Rs 6 lakh per panchayat in a total of 16,165 panchayats covered under the scheme. But there seems to be many a slip between the cup and the lip for beneficiaries of the NREGP."