Sarpanch Sangh stages dharna over MNREGA anomalies

Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Under the banner of Sarpanch Ekta Kalyan Sangh, sarpanchs, secretaries and assistant secretaries protested at the administrative complex building here on Wednesday. They were opposing the mandatory presence of workers in MNREGA through NMMS. The protesters sitting on the dharna warned that if their demands are not met, they will lock the panchayats and stop MNREGA work.

Sarpanchs and secretaries sitting on the dharna for 9-point demands say that due to network problem, it is becoming difficult to take attendance of workers from NMMS. Therefore, work should be done on the second option. If the attendance of workers could not be uploaded due to a technical problem, provision for edit should be made in the system. Panchayats should remove the limit of a maximum of 20 per cent of work in any scheme.

MNREGA work should be done through master roll like before. There should be a ratio of 70 per cent material and 30 per cent labour in the construction work. The payment for the material should be made at the time of evaluation. The payment of skilled labour should also be in sync with the payment of labour. The financial authority given to the gram panchayat at the time of MNREGA, 2005 should be implemented again.

Similarly, the MNREGA scheme should be demand-based and not target-based. The sarpanch and secretaries, who are agitating in the administrative complex, have announced of an indefinite strike. A meeting was also held during this and was addressed by different speakers. Sarpanchs gave a memorandum to ADM Santosh Tagore and placed their demands in front of him.