The Central government that owes Rs 1,400 crore MNREGS funds to Telangana has now come up with some more queries denying the wage to the daily labour.
As part of the decentralisation, the Telangana government has created nearly 4,000 new Gram Panchayats. In all the panchayats the MNREGS labour was continuing their work with their job cards. In every job card there will be new and old panchayat codes.
Instead of updating the codes in job cards as per the panchayats, the Central government is asking the labour to open new bank accounts which they are finding a laborious process. In many Gram Panchayats there are no bank branches. The bank officials where there are branches were not agreeing to open new accounts to those who already have accounts. The Central government stopped their wages on the pretext.
The Central government is hell-bent on its demand and the labour is very irate with the attitude of the government. The State government officials and public representatives have taken up the issue of release of Rs 1,400 crore pending dues under the MNREGS several times but in vain.
Now, this new query has cropped up, further frustrating the rural poor.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao