In Patiala, dead villagers get wages denied to living

 In Patiala, dead villagers get wages denied to living

---

Bharat.Khanna@timesgroup.com

23.01.2022

Patiala: The dead are getting paid under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in this district’s villages, while the living who demand work are being denied or underpaid.

Fatehpur’s Ajaib Nath died in May 2020 but received six days of wages last December for the work done in November 2021, 18 months after his departure. Fellow villager Malook Singh died in December 2012 but got wages for 20 days of work finished in November 2021. These are not isolated cases.

TOI has reported how Bhim Singh of a Nabha village was paid years after his death. Internationalist Democratic Platform president Gurmeet Singh Thuhi said: "After an inquiry, the district administration dismissedit as a technical error, just to save their corrupt officials. "

Punjab MGNREGS Labourers’ Front president Raj Kumar Kansuha said: “A dead Ajaib Nath got Rs 1,614 for six days of work, while a dead Malook Singh got Rs 5,380 for 20 days of toil. They raised the demand and went to work all in papers. The scale of this scam was never investigated properly. The labourers who are alive don’t get work by the rules and many of them remain underpaid. ”

The district administration investigated the matter only after the MGNREGS worker union started asking questions after being exploited for years.

Patiala additional deputy commissioner (development) Gautam Jain said: “We have a complaint and wehave initiated an inquiry. Anyone found guiltywill be punished. ”

Woman MGNREGSlabourer BaldevKaur of Nabha’s Babarpur village had reported to the district administration that she had received Rs 1,614 for six daysof job she had never done. Kansuha said that: “Baldev Kaur haddemanded 40days of work, which the officials had refused citing rules, but after she complained with the district administration, they put money into her account. ”