Sarpanchs protest review of MGNREGA

Sarpanchs and secretaries in Damoh, on Friday, have threatened to stall work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) protesting administration’s decision to seek details via text messaging of the daily work being undertaken.

The sarpanchs have said this was unjustified as it would incur additional financial burden. They added as many of them were not tech-savvy, they would not know how to message. However, district administration is unmoved.

District administration, while attempting to bring transparency and contain corruption in the implementation of MGNREGA, has instructed sarpanch and secretaries to message to the zilla panchayat information on labourers being engaged and quantum of work being done on a daily basis.

This order has not gone down well with the sarpanch. They took to the streets demanding withdrawal of the order on the ground it was unjustified. They also handed over a memorandum to district collector on the issue. They said if the order were not withdrawn within a week, they would stall work. Sarpanch Rikshi Thakur said the order did not have any merit as it was not in the rule book.

CEO of zilla panchayat Chavi Bharadwaj said the order has to be followed as it would help in eliminating corruption.