Mysuru: Dalit graveyards to be developed to generate jobs

MYSURU: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, a flagship project of the Union government, has come in handy for the local bodies in the state to provide employment for labourers who have been rendered jobless due to lockdown.
Now, the scope of the scheme has been extended further to generate new jobs. In many villages of the state, dalit cemetaries have poor facilities. Now, under MGNREGA, these burial grounds will get basic facilities. In Mysuru, 24 SC/ST burial grunds have been identified for developmental work. A decision in this regard was taken in a video conference chaired by the chief secretary on May 12.
Social welfare department joint director N Muniraju informed that a proposal to this effect has been submitted to the zilla panchayat. The project involves providing basic facilities like drinking water, construction of sheds and compounds, road repair, planting saplings and taking up other development works inside the graveyards through MGNREGA funds.
Prashanth Kumar Mishra, Mysuru ZP CEO, said that the project comes under the CM’s 15 point programme.
According to Raghotham Hoba, a writer from Mysuru, the decision is a welcome move. ‘Dalits are facing a lot of problems to carry out final rites for the dead. As per custom, dalits bury the dead. But due to inadequate burial grounds and local issues, they forced to burn the bodies. Development of SC and ST cemetaries under the rural employment generation scheme is a welcome move,” he said.