The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Complaints over disbursal of funds

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Sunday, Dec 09, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Complaints over disbursal of funds

Staff Reporter

KARUR: Complaints have surfaced in disbursal of funds to beneficiaries under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Karur district.

The grievance of a section of the public is that labourers are being paid less than Rs.80 a day.

The district administration has, however, sought to dispel doubts of under-utilisation saying wages are being disbursed according to the nature and extant of work.

The scheme envisages 100 days of labour in a year for one person in a family below poverty line in each of the village panchayats in the identified district.

There are complaints that in certain panchayats in K. Paramathi block, there is under utilisation of labour and only Rs.70 or even Rs.60 is being disbursed to certain labourers.

Some labourers gheroed officials a couple of days ago over the “insufficient” disbursal of the funds, while a few others threatened not to turn up for work.

When the issue flared up, it became known that the problem persisted in many other blocks.

State vice-president of the Indian Youth Congress S. Jothimani said people in most of the places possessed and used only primitive shovels and not sophisticated implements for carrying out the earth works.

As per the regulations, the panchayats must supply implements but that was not being adhered to. Also, it was mandatory that makeshift crèches be provided at the work spot, but that was not the case in most of the places.

Admitting that it was difficult to assess earthwork estimates as regards extant and depth as those parameters depended on the soil condition, Ms. Jothimani called upon officials to inform routinely the nature and extant of work so that the beneficiaries could prepare themselves.

Parameters

When the issue was placed before Collector T.N. Venkatesh, he said several parameters had to be adhered to before the financial aspect of the work could be settled. Depending on the nature and extant of each work, people were being selected and wages fixed accordingly.

Refuting suggestions that workers were being underpaid,

Mr. Venkatesh said if a particular piece of work entailed an amount lesser than the maximum wages prescribed in the guidelines, then only that could be disbursed.

Efforts were being made to overcome the initial problems and the NREGS would be implemented successfully.

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