UP: Rural development department ups ante over plaints of job denial to workers

Lucknow: While chief minister Yogi Adityanath has been stressing on employment generation, the rural development department has raised the ante over complaints of denial of employment to labourers, including migrants, under Centre’s flagship scheme Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
In a communique to rural development commissioner K Ravindra Naik, principal secretary (rural development) Manoj Singh said the state government was receiving complaints that at many places, programme officers were not engaging labourers despite the demand.
On certain occasions, gram rozgar sewaks are seeking applications for only six days instead of guaranteed 100 days of employment, the letter said.
TOI is in possession of the letter dated June 4.
The letter says that MNREGS is a demand-driven scheme under which labourers can seek 100 days of employment as a “right”. However, the state government is receiving complaints that 100 days of employment was getting distributed among people of same family, which is not appropriate, the letter adds.
Sources in the department said as against the current demand of over 70 lakh, only around 40 lakh are engaged under MNREGS.
“The situation is not suitable in the present state of crisis when people are seeking employment after coronavirus-induced lockdown,” a senior official in rural development department said.
In the communique, Singh said as per central guidelines labourers had the right to assemble in groups and push for steps required to improve the scheme.
“Guidelines suggest that a transparent mechanism can be adopted through engagement of civil society organisations (CSOs) which can help the government in spreading awareness, collection of resources and help labourers seeking jobs,” he said.
CSOs can help in establishing a synergy between labourers and the programme structure so that the rights of workers may be protected and they get their dues timely.
CSOs will be selected by a committee comprising principal secretary (rural development), rural development commissioner, director (State Rural Livelihood Mission), director (panchayati raj), additional commissioner, MNREGS, and an officer nominated by the principal secretary (finance).
In the first phase, the department has identified 50 districts including Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Kanpur, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Siddharthnagar, Gonda, Balrampur, Banda, Hamirpur, Etawah and Kannauj, where CSOs can be roped in. Each of the 50 district can be allotted a CSO which can be given incentives as per resources.
“CSOs will inspect MNREGS sites in 8-10 gram panchayats every day and send photographs to the state headquarters. The CSO may also help in providing training to labourers engaged in MNREGS and spread awareness about social distancing which is mandatory as per the Central guidelines. The CSO may be engaged for one year which can be extended as per requirement,” Singh said.