NREGA Sangharsh Morcha's press releases, dharnas in Bihar, Jharkhand and UP and other updates
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NREGA Sangharsh Morcha
Dec 23, 2017, 10:08:48 PM12/23/17
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Dear All,
Please find the updates on NREGA from different parts of the country for the last few months.
NREGA Sangharsh Morcha’s Press Release in November
NREGA Sangharsh Morcha issued a press release 7 November, 2017 to highlight the denial of MGNREGA entitlements continues in blatant violation of Supreme Court orders in the Swaraj Abhiyan PIL. In its previous judgments on issues of MGNREGA workers in May and August, the Supreme Court had categorically instructed the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India to implement MGNREGA in its true spirit by ensuring 1) timely release of adequate funds to states and timely payment of wages to workers; 2) payment of compensation for delays in wage payments; 3) effective monitoring of the programme; and 4) implementation of all provisions of the Act. But more than a year after this hearing, the Ministry continues to violate the orders of the Court. The Court will hear the matter of MGNREGA next on 5 December 2017. You can find the press release here.
Citizen Oversight and India’s Right to Work Program: What do the Social Auditors Say?
Suchi Pande & Rakesh R. Dubbud carried out an exploratory in partnership with SSAAT-Telangana, to examine the performance of the state-run social audits from the perspective of the staff facilitating the audit. Two thirds of the surveyed staff felt that more than 50 percent of the social audits they facilitated helped in deterring corruption. More than half of the surveyed staff agree that social audits generate some degree of answerability from social programs to citizens but that formal enforcement is lacking. Find the working paper here.
Dharna in Jharkhand (December, 2017)
Close to 1,000 NREGA workers and other rural labourers converged to Birsa Chowk from 12 districts of Jharkhand today and sat on dharna to protest against repeated attacks on their right to food and right to work. The event was jointly organised by Right to Food Campaign Jharkhand and NREGA Watch. The dharna was prompted by a series of recent starvation deaths in Jharkhand. The starvation deaths epitomize the hardships that millions of people endure when it comes to securing their rights under NREGA and the public distribution system. You can find a press note and list of demands presented here.
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh
Ambedkar Association and Samalochana organised series of activities involving MGNREGA workers demanding disbursement of MGNREGA payments lying with the postal department, without disbursement for months. They organised village meetings with MGNREGA workers extensively in Munagapaka block of Visakhapatnam. The organisations circulated the details of workers whose money has been credited in to postal account but not disbursed by the postal department in villages. Around 54 lakhs are pending with postal dept for months in Munagapaka block. Mgnrega wages worth 11.37 crores were undisbursed by postal dept in the Visakhapatnam dist. They held meetings with different civil society groups and political party leaders and apprised them on the issue. They met submitted representations to Supt of posts, Anakapalle division. With relentless pressure from workers demanding wages from the Branch post masters, submitting memorandums to state government officials, postal dept , Asst supt of posts called for a review meeting and took measures for wage disbursement. The protesters demanded special measures for wage disbursement in tribal villages. Within 2 weeks in Munagapaka mandal 40 lakh rupees got disbursed and postal dept convened special enrolment drive for the sake of workers who are denied wages due to biometric issues. The entire campaign was run by Rajana Bujjibabu from Ambedkar Association. Media report and photographs.
Women’s Collective of Torpa met the RD Minister, Jharkhand (October, 2017)
13 October, 2017 – Representatives of the Adarash Mahila Mahasangh and various NREGA Sahayata Kendra’s (Chakradharpur, Sonua, Raidi, Torpa, Basia, Gumla and Kisko) across the state met with Neelkanth Singh Munda, Minister of Rural Development, Jharkhand to discuss several issues in MGNREGA. They discussed problems of funds blockage from the Centre, delays on part of the payment agencies after the FTO signature, importance of continuing the ‘Yojna Banao Abhiyan’ and increase in wage rates by merely Re. 1. They also raised their concern regarding insufficient facilities at the bank to which the Hon. Minister committed to opening a separate counter for MGNREGA wages in bank branches. They reminded the Minster of the MoUs signed between the NREGA Sahayta Kendras and the State which makes provisions of amenities and payment of salaries to the people working in the NREGA Sahayta Kendras. These provisions have not been met since the MoUs have been signed in August, to which the Minister agreed to look into. You can find the press release here.
Dharna in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh (October, 2017)
About 300 members of the Sangtin Samooh in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh organised a 2 day dharna on 5th & 6th October, 2017. The dharna was held as a warning to the government to meet the demands of NREGA workers for immediate payment of pending wages, muster rolls to be available on work sites, proper measurement of work for women. The workers also wanted the administration to investigate the cases of violence against the workers in Kaitholiya and Jajpur Gram Panchayats. A brief note on the matter is attached here.
Dharna in Muzzafarpur, Bihar (November, 2017)
Workers organised a dharna under the banner of Bihar NREGA Watch in Muzzafarpur in November, 2017. Several women NREGA workers were present at the collectorate to demand that work be provided within 15 days of work demand, else the workers be paid an unemployment compensation. Media reports can be found here.
Study on Underestimation of Delays in Wage Payments (December, 2017)
According to an ongoing study by Rajendran Narayanan, Sakina Dhorajiwala and Rajesh Golani, only 32 percent of wages were paid on time in 2017-18 in a sample of 3,603 Gram Panchayats across ten states as opposed to the Centre’s claim of 85 percent timely payments. The study is a follow up to the findings published in August. In the current financial year 86 percent of the truly payable compensation is not being accounted for by the Centre. An article about the study can be found here and the complete report for FY 18 is available here.
Media
Siraj Dutta, 2017 - http://www.newswing.com/?q=en/Jharkhand%27s%20MNREGA%20workers%20waiting%20for%20political%20preference
Ankita Aggarwal, 2017 - http://www.epw.in/journal/2017/44/commentary/fairness-minimum-wages-mgnrega.html
Rajendran Narayanan, Sakina Dhorajiwala, Rajesh Golani, 2017 - https://thewire.in/201818/nrega-payment-delay/
Hans India, 2017 - http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Andhra-Pradesh/2017-10-24/Postal-dept-slammed-for-negligence/334805
If you have any information that you would like to share on the Rozgar updates, please send it on nrega.sangharsh.morcha@gmail.com.
Zindabad,
NREGA Sangharsh Morcha Secretariat
Please find the updates on NREGA from different parts of the country for the last few months.
NREGA Sangharsh Morcha’s Press Release in November
NREGA Sangharsh Morcha issued a press release 7 November, 2017 to highlight the denial of MGNREGA entitlements continues in blatant violation of Supreme Court orders in the Swaraj Abhiyan PIL. In its previous judgments on issues of MGNREGA workers in May and August, the Supreme Court had categorically instructed the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India to implement MGNREGA in its true spirit by ensuring 1) timely release of adequate funds to states and timely payment of wages to workers; 2) payment of compensation for delays in wage payments; 3) effective monitoring of the programme; and 4) implementation of all provisions of the Act. But more than a year after this hearing, the Ministry continues to violate the orders of the Court. The Court will hear the matter of MGNREGA next on 5 December 2017. You can find the press release here.
Citizen Oversight and India’s Right to Work Program: What do the Social Auditors Say?
Suchi Pande & Rakesh R. Dubbud carried out an exploratory in partnership with SSAAT-Telangana, to examine the performance of the state-run social audits from the perspective of the staff facilitating the audit. Two thirds of the surveyed staff felt that more than 50 percent of the social audits they facilitated helped in deterring corruption. More than half of the surveyed staff agree that social audits generate some degree of answerability from social programs to citizens but that formal enforcement is lacking. Find the working paper here.
Dharna in Jharkhand (December, 2017)
Close to 1,000 NREGA workers and other rural labourers converged to Birsa Chowk from 12 districts of Jharkhand today and sat on dharna to protest against repeated attacks on their right to food and right to work. The event was jointly organised by Right to Food Campaign Jharkhand and NREGA Watch. The dharna was prompted by a series of recent starvation deaths in Jharkhand. The starvation deaths epitomize the hardships that millions of people endure when it comes to securing their rights under NREGA and the public distribution system. You can find a press note and list of demands presented here.
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh
Ambedkar Association and Samalochana organised series of activities involving MGNREGA workers demanding disbursement of MGNREGA payments lying with the postal department, without disbursement for months. They organised village meetings with MGNREGA workers extensively in Munagapaka block of Visakhapatnam. The organisations circulated the details of workers whose money has been credited in to postal account but not disbursed by the postal department in villages. Around 54 lakhs are pending with postal dept for months in Munagapaka block. Mgnrega wages worth 11.37 crores were undisbursed by postal dept in the Visakhapatnam dist. They held meetings with different civil society groups and political party leaders and apprised them on the issue. They met submitted representations to Supt of posts, Anakapalle division. With relentless pressure from workers demanding wages from the Branch post masters, submitting memorandums to state government officials, postal dept , Asst supt of posts called for a review meeting and took measures for wage disbursement. The protesters demanded special measures for wage disbursement in tribal villages. Within 2 weeks in Munagapaka mandal 40 lakh rupees got disbursed and postal dept convened special enrolment drive for the sake of workers who are denied wages due to biometric issues. The entire campaign was run by Rajana Bujjibabu from Ambedkar Association. Media report and photographs.
Women’s Collective of Torpa met the RD Minister, Jharkhand (October, 2017)
13 October, 2017 – Representatives of the Adarash Mahila Mahasangh and various NREGA Sahayata Kendra’s (Chakradharpur, Sonua, Raidi, Torpa, Basia, Gumla and Kisko) across the state met with Neelkanth Singh Munda, Minister of Rural Development, Jharkhand to discuss several issues in MGNREGA. They discussed problems of funds blockage from the Centre, delays on part of the payment agencies after the FTO signature, importance of continuing the ‘Yojna Banao Abhiyan’ and increase in wage rates by merely Re. 1. They also raised their concern regarding insufficient facilities at the bank to which the Hon. Minister committed to opening a separate counter for MGNREGA wages in bank branches. They reminded the Minster of the MoUs signed between the NREGA Sahayta Kendras and the State which makes provisions of amenities and payment of salaries to the people working in the NREGA Sahayta Kendras. These provisions have not been met since the MoUs have been signed in August, to which the Minister agreed to look into. You can find the press release here.
Dharna in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh (October, 2017)
About 300 members of the Sangtin Samooh in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh organised a 2 day dharna on 5th & 6th October, 2017. The dharna was held as a warning to the government to meet the demands of NREGA workers for immediate payment of pending wages, muster rolls to be available on work sites, proper measurement of work for women. The workers also wanted the administration to investigate the cases of violence against the workers in Kaitholiya and Jajpur Gram Panchayats. A brief note on the matter is attached here.
Dharna in Muzzafarpur, Bihar (November, 2017)
Workers organised a dharna under the banner of Bihar NREGA Watch in Muzzafarpur in November, 2017. Several women NREGA workers were present at the collectorate to demand that work be provided within 15 days of work demand, else the workers be paid an unemployment compensation. Media reports can be found here.
Study on Underestimation of Delays in Wage Payments (December, 2017)
According to an ongoing study by Rajendran Narayanan, Sakina Dhorajiwala and Rajesh Golani, only 32 percent of wages were paid on time in 2017-18 in a sample of 3,603 Gram Panchayats across ten states as opposed to the Centre’s claim of 85 percent timely payments. The study is a follow up to the findings published in August. In the current financial year 86 percent of the truly payable compensation is not being accounted for by the Centre. An article about the study can be found here and the complete report for FY 18 is available here.
Media
Siraj Dutta, 2017 - http://www.newswing.com/?q=en/Jharkhand%27s%20MNREGA%20workers%20waiting%20for%20political%20preference
Ankita Aggarwal, 2017 - http://www.epw.in/journal/2017/44/commentary/fairness-minimum-wages-mgnrega.html
Rajendran Narayanan, Sakina Dhorajiwala, Rajesh Golani, 2017 - https://thewire.in/201818/nrega-payment-delay/
Hans India, 2017 - http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Andhra-Pradesh/2017-10-24/Postal-dept-slammed-for-negligence/334805
If you have any information that you would like to share on the Rozgar updates, please send it on nrega.sangharsh.morcha@gmail.com.
Zindabad,
NREGA Sangharsh Morcha Secretariat
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