| Adivasi & NREGA: Corruption mars welfare security |
THE CENTRAL government introduced several anti-poverty programme in KBK (undivided Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi) districts to prevent hunger deaths and to prevent migration from rural to urban areas. But the fate of the poor has not changed.
The government introduced National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Orissa, on February 2, 2006, to strengthen the economic condition of the rural poor in India, with a commitment to ensure the poor people’s right to work. The right is restricted to 100 work days in an year for a family and providing them pure housing power from the public distribution system (PDS) shops to keep them free from hunger .
As a journalist, with an experience of over 25 years, I found the NREGA, the biggest and noblest anti-poverty scheme in the post-independence India. However, the biggest noble scheme seems defeated in KBK districts. The officers looted, and are still looting, the poor men’s money in an organised way by taking advantage of their innocence and illiteracy.
A visit to some villages under the Kaberibadi and the Pedalada panchayats under the Bandhugaon block in Koraput district reveals the pathetic condition of the Kondh tribe. The government, the local elected representatives and the government officials ignore all the 23 villages, which are on the other side of the river Jhanjabati. The tribals living there do not know any other languag, apart from their own dialect Koya, Telugu and a bit of Oriya language.
While most of these villages can only be reached by foot, some villages can be accessed by two- wheelers in all seasons, except rainy season. A concrete 150 metre road, from Kaberibadi to Maudivalsa, under the NREGA funds of Rs 2, 50,000 is completed and no other work is in sight to provide employment to the people. This proves the negligence and carelessness, which is nothing but the denial of the constitutional right to work and live.
A few villagers of the Maudivalsa panchayat of the Bandhugaon block received job cards, but neither had they received job nor any employment allowance. The story is the same in all the 23 villages, which have a tribal population of 6056 and 70 per cent of the population below the poverty line. Male literacy is about four per cent and the female literacy is zero.
These depressiong figures made this writer to visit Kaberibadi, Maudivalsa, Lopeta and Barlamunda. Most of the tribals mortgaged their below poverty line (BPL) cards, to sundhi and baniya/kumutis (business community people), who are buying food grains under the PDS and selling them in local market.
In the Barlamunda village, a local tribal journalist, Lakmidhar Meleka, accompanied me. Barlamunda village is under the pedalada grama panchayat of the Bandhugaon block, bordering Andhra Pradesh. About 100 families reside in the village and one must track about 15 km. to reach there. The means of transport are non-existent.Out of the 100 families, 63 families have BPL cards and 15 people have been identified under the antyodaya anna yojana. But not even a single family has benefited by these schemes.
Most of the BPL cardholders mortgaged their cards to the moneylenders belonging to the sundhi family, the most exploiting class in Andhra Pradesh, and in Orissa.
About eight years ago, eight families were identified to provide houses under the Indira awas yojana. Out of these eight houses, five houses are completed and construction work is yet to start in the remaining.
Most of the schools under the education department, and the anganwadi centres in 23 villages are cut off by the river Jhanjabati and are functioning only on paper. Government benefits like rice for mid-day meal to the students (no students seen reading), food and other materials to the anganwadi centre is available at a rate, which is 50 per cent less than the market rate at the block office Bandhugaon. When contacted the block development officer (BDO), Dukhishyam Paik, gave no official information showing false, fabricated and concocted reasons.
The child development project officers (CDPO) were nowhere to be seen and an official revealed that the teachers are officially working but not physically present in the schools. They are more powerful financially and politically and it is difficult to take action against the teachers.
All the 23 villages are desperately trying to get their problems solved by submitting their representations to the higher ups, but all in vain. As a final recourse, all the voters of these 23 villages boycotted the by-poll, held for the Lakshmipur assembly constituency, on April 12, 2008, in protest against the non-construction of a bridge over the river Jhanjabati and for not getting the BPL cards and job cards.
The BDO advised a few local journalists, including this author, that the boycott threat, issued by the Communist Party of India- Maoist (CPI- Maoist), was nothing but to save his skin.
Hundreds of women, of the deomali mahila federation of Dudhari, rallied from the office protesting against the involvement of government officials in corruption, while implementing the welfare schemes.
The president of the federation, Kosai Jani, leaders, Tikiri Disari, Sunam Antal, Mali K Jani, sarpanch of the Pitaguda Daitari Kandulphula, committee member of the kanti lingaraj gemel, spoke in well attended public meetings at Similiguda, to prevent irregularities while implementing the anti-poverty schemes and payment of long outstanding wages. They also demanded for equal rights to women and submitted a representation to the BDO, Semiliguda, urging him to fulfil all their legitimate demands within 30 days, failing which another rally will be organised.
It is a shame on the part of the government to leave the corrupt anti-poverty implementing agency without initiating criminal charges. Even today, many families have not received the job cards. Those, who have got job cards, applied for the job but they neither got the work nor any unemployment allowance, which is mandatory under the NREGA.
Village committees are yet to be formed and the local contractors take the projects. Gender discrimination is rampant in KBK. There are no facilities at the work site, like temporary erection of shed, drinking water and medicines. Most of the job cards are being kept with the contractor or the panchayat officers. The unemployed youths are migrating to the neighbouring states in search of work and food.
It is corruption that is keeping India perpetually poor and makes life miserable for the common citizen.
The Orissa development action forum (ODAF) is a network, which is working in 13 districts of the state for the development of the adivasis. Apart from many other things, it has taken a keen interest in facilitating the implementation of the NREGA.
Orissa organised a two-day consultation on NREGA/OREGA on from June 18 to 19, 2007. The seminar was attended by villagers, the representatives of political parties, the government authorities, the panchayat representatives and the civil society organisations and it submitted a representation to the chief minister through its executive secretary, Dr William Stanley, on behalf of the 55 participant who attended the seminar. We have to see and watch how the government implements the suggestions of the ODAF.
Merinews, 15th April, 2008
K.Sudhakar.Patnaik |
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