In Bankura rural,poor job record haunts CPM

But with barely ten days of work provided in his village since the scheme was launched in 2005,Karmakar is among the 1,000-odd job card holders for whom the NREGS remains only a promise.

“When we received our job cards three years ago,Gangajalghati gram panchayat was led by the CPM. They organised work on just two ponds — both of which remain incomplete,” he said.

“Following the panchayat elections in May last year,the Trinamool came to power. Since then,work has started on two more ponds. Around 600 of us are working on them. If the Congress-Trinamool combine can give us more work,we’ll vote for them,” Karmakar added.

Fakir Gorai,a member of the Trinamool -led panchayat samiti concedes that NREGS work in the village has commenced only in this fiscal. “There was trouble with payment as well,as the local post office could not manage the payment. Finally,it was paid by hand,” says Gorai.

The official figure about the persondays generated by the scheme is dismal. In 2008-09,figure of persondays generated was 32 for SC,11 for ST,20 for women 20 and 14 for others. Out of a total 2,04,181 households (taking both Bankura and Bishnupur LS constituencies together) that received job cards,only 1,891 households are shown to have completed 100 days of work.

The NREGS has become an issue and both the candidates — CPM’s Basudeb Acharya and Congress’ Subrata Mukherjee — can’t afford to ignore. Mukherjee who is keen to defeat incumbent MP Acharya has also promised to increase NREGS daily wage from Rs 81 to Rs 100.

Speaking to The Indian Express,Bankura DM Sundar Majumdar,who is also the district project officer,says payments have been held up as the institutionalised payment system under which wages are paid through the postal service or banks is not working out. “The post offices and local bank branches don’t have enough staff to handle the volumes. There is gross backwardness here. In some extreme cases,we have bypassed the system and paid by hand,” said Majumdar.

A senior officer in the DM’s office,however,blamed the CPM panchayats for stalling the scheme. “The MP,MLA and most panchayats are dominated by the CPM. Much corruption has been detected and funds have been withheld to prevent misuse. Muster rolls have been changed and money misappropriated,” the officer said.

Interestingly,in nearby Kanchanpur village,NREGS work was going on in a full swing as workers were involved in digging several ponds.

“We are receiving payment on time and work is available to all job card holders. Payment is made once a week,” said Pabitra Banerjee,whose electrical goods business went bust. Khando Singh,an elderly tribal overseeing work,added: “Everyone is getting work here.”