Workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) blocked the Tirupattur-Tiruvannamalai Main Road and laid siege to a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) bus on Wednesday for denying work under the scheme in the village.
Police said it was around 9 a.m when about 70 workers blocked the stretch after K. Amirthammal, president of Pasalikuttai village, allegedly ordered them not to come for work under the scheme after they failed to attend the gram sabha meeting held in the village on Tuesday to mark the Independence Day. When the workers turned up for work on Wednesday, they were asked to go away.
The workers were engaged in the creation of community ponds. “Some of them even complained to us that the MGNREGA app was not working. We have sorted it for them,” N. Shankar, Block Development Officer (BDO), Tirupattur, told The Hindu.
Road blockade
Due to road blockade, traffic was hit on the busy stretch. Immediately, a team of revenue officials, Tirupattur Taluk police personnel and TNSTC officials led by K. Senthil, Deputy SP (Tirupattur), reached the spot and pacified the residents. After over an hour of talks, the workers dispersed with assurance from the authorities that they can resume the work to create community ponds.
Since last month, the community ponds are among the 1,400 farm ponds being dug in 208 villages, covering the Tirupattur, Vaniyambadi, Natrampalli and Ambur taluks, to recharge ground water. The work is expected to be completed in a month.
Each farm pond is 72 feet long, 32 feet wide and six feet deep with a storage capacity of 3.63 lakh litres. Most of the MGNREGA workers in the district were engaged in the work, said BDO officials.
