NREGA workers demand unemployment allowance

Gurbaxpuri

Tarn Taran, June 13

Hundreds of MGNREGA workers from across the district lodged a protest in front of the District Administrative Complex (DAC) on Tuesday against the non-availability of work in villages for over a year.

The workers from different villages under the banner of Dalit Dastan Virodhi Andolan (DDVA) came here led by their district president Ranjit Singh Shakri. Shakri was among those who the addressed the gathering. The workers alleged that MGNREGA funds were being misused by the state government resulting in stoppage of work in most of the villages in the district as a result of which the NREGA workers had gone jobless. The leaders said that in case the administration fails to give NREGA work to the job card holder, the eligible workers should get an unemployment allowance.

The NREGA workers were holding their applications demanding unemployment compensation for the jobless workers. Shakri said no official came to receive applications from hundreds of jobless workers. He said that neither the DC, ADC or any other official was there to get the application from NREGA workers.

Shakari said the DDVA must intensify its agitation to get job or unemployment allowances.