Complaints against job scheme

AHMEDABAD: “We were promised Rs80 per day for digging ditches for water conservation in our village. We were paid only Rs6 per day, for which we had to wait for three weeks,” says Masoorben of Balisana village of Prantij taluka, Sabarkantha district of Gujarat.

 Masoorben is one of the 9,035 rural labourers of Prantij taluka in Sabarkantha registered under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Most of these labourers are being exploited by government officials and gram panchayats. They are paid Rs4 to Rs15 per day, despite the scheme promising Rs80 per day.

At Rs6 per day, Masoorben is way below the poverty line and hardly manages to buy ration for her nine member family. Activists have complained of the state government’s failure in proper implementation of the programme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.