Organised under the banner of Karnataka Prantha Krishi Koolikarara Sangha, workers from different villages in Kalaburagi district staged a demonstration outside the office of the Zilla Panchayat here on Thursday, demanding work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
“Kalaburagi is one of the drought-hit districts in the State. With the destruction of standing crops and the absence of any agricultural activities, people are migrating to urban areas in search of livelihood options. We have repeatedly appealed to the Zilla Panchayat officials to start MGNREGA works so that people get work when the most needed. Unfortunately, our request haven fallen on deaf ears of the officials. Left with no option, we have resorted to stage a protest to pressurise the administration to start giving work under the job scheme,” district president of the organisation Bhimshetty Yampalli said.
The agitating workers also complained of non-cooperation and even harassment from officials in the gram panchayats in implementing the job scheme.
“In Devana Teganur village, workers have worked for a week and the officials have given attendance only for one day. The officials refused to accept Form 6 demanding work under the job scheme. The officials don’t treat woman workers respectfully. Job cards are denied to genuine workers. And, payments are not made to workers even months after work is completed. These are the problems in many gram panchayats,” district vice-president of the organisation Megharaj Kathare said.
The workers later submitted a memorandum the Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Panchayat with a list of demands, which included a thorough probe into irregularities in the implementation of MGNREGA at Maratur, Hunnagunta and Tonasalli gram panchayats in Shahabad taluk, reissuing 25 job cards deleted at Ingalagi Gram Panchayat, payment of pending MGNREGA dues in Chandanakera and Tengali gram panchayats and payment of unemployment allowance as ordered by the Ombudsman in Kodli village in Kalagi taluk.
