Their NREGA wages gone, over 2,000 Dahod farmers give a boycott call

Indian Express; Anupam Chakravartty; Wed Sep 29 2010, Vadodara:

Even as the state government mulls over the compulsory voting bill, farmers in the tribal Dahod district have decided to boycott the local elections over non-payment of wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). There are about 2,223 such farmers in Fatehpura taluka of Dahod district bordering Rajasthan, who have decided to abstain from voting.

Incidentally, police investigation continues in the case in which sarpanchs are alleged to have embezzled funds to the tune of Rs 5 crore due to the workers.

Nathu Pargi (56), a farmer who took up work as a labourer under NREGS, in 2008, said: “I did not receive a single paisa as payment, so why should I vote for anyone? The people who have taken the money will contest these elections again.”

Bharat Pargi, the Secretary of the NREGA union for Fatehpura taluka, whose Right to Information (RTI) application brought the scam to light, said 2223 NREGA workers from Fatehpura will boycott the October 21 panchayat elections.

“We met the District Development Officer on September 23. He was very supportive to our cause, but told us that it will take at least a month to examine all the muster rolls. But we fail to understand our fault. Was it because we worked under NREGS that we are being punished by the sarpanchs in this manner?” he said.

He added that despite police complaints being filed against the accused, not a single paisa has been distributed to the workers. In the FIR filed by the Dahod District Development Officer, 20 talatis, 20 sarpanchs, including 11 women sarpanchs were named as accused along with two Taluka Development Officers, engineers, surveyors and the pre-auditor of a private company.

The Dahod police arrested seven people from three villages in Fatehpura for making fake documents and forging signatures to embezzle Rs 4.12 crore from the district administration. Bharat Pargi said, “The sarpanchs will again campaign for votes. What are the choices we are left with?”

Jainu Dewan, who has been recently appointed the District Development Officer, said there might be some delay in making the payments, but the delays are justified because the administration wants the system of payment to be “100 per cent error free”.

“I am studying the issue. We have to be very cautious about payments as vast irregularities are involved. We are ensuring that the deserving are paid for the works completed under the scheme,” he said.