‘They will send you to Iraq under job guarantee scheme’

Officials said while no one knows who spread the rumour, one possible source could be the local stone-quarry owners who fear they may lose labour to the job scheme. On an average, the quarries pay Rs 35 a day while the scheme guarantees Rs 58. Lalitpur is one of the 22 UP districts where the scheme is on.

“I had 10 filled-out forms at my home which I had to return to the villagers. Such things are happening even in other blocks in the district,” gram pradhan Shanti Devi told The Indian Express. In fact, even a suicide is being attributed to the rumour.

Shanti Devi said local resident Kalawati, about 27, killed herself on April 17 because her husband didn’t give in to her demand of withdrawing his registration. “Her husband Ram Sewak told me she won’t listen to his argument that even if he went to Iran or Iraq, he would earn more money and send it home,” Shanti Devi said. She added some villagers think the Centre wants to “identify unemployed people to recruit them for Iran and Iraq to help George Bush Government.”

The district administration is working hard to convince villagers otherwise. Its pamphlet says in bold letters: “It has been learnt that some unwarranted and anti-social elements are spreading rumour among the people about the scheme. Don’t listen to them as no labourer will be sent outside their respective blocks….please inform the thana, block, tehsil about the name and addresses of those spreading the rumour or call on the District Magistrate, Chief Development Officer or Project Director of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA).”

Lalitpur district Chief Development Officer Bhubaneshwar Prasad Sharma, when contacted, told The Indian Express: “The rumours were spread that villagers would be bundled out to Iran and Iraq, while at some places, villagers were told they would be forcibly sterilised. The rumours spread in the entire district like wildfire, as it usually happens in villages. Hundreds of people withdrew from the scheme. But now we have made the villagers aware and have started giving jobs so that they see that nobody is going to Iraq, Iran or anywhere.”

To a question, he said, “It is difficult to say how many villagers withdrew from the scheme for it was happening all over the district. But I think it won’t be less than 5,000.”

He said that a week ago, three persons were arrested for spreading this Iran-Iraq rumour. “They were henchmen of local contractors who supply cheap labour.” As of today, 41,819 applied for benefits under the scheme, 24,370 have been registered. Of these, 10,309 have been given employment cards and of them, 4,135 have got jobs.

Said DRDA director P N Verma: “Although we are distributing the pamphlet so that villagers are not misled by the rumours, it will take some time to build confidence in the villagers.”

When contacted, Additional District Magistrate of Lalitpur M S Qamal said: “The panic over the rumour regarding sending the labourers to Iran and Iraq has subsided now. I joined just a day ago but I can assure you this kind of rumour will not be allowed in future.”

piyush.srivastava@expressindia.com