NREGA workers stage dharna, allege bias in work allocation

The district branch of the NREGA Workers Union, stressing on the current demands of the NREGA workers, staged a dharna on Tuesday in front of the District Administrative Complex (DAC) here. Mina Kaur, district president of the union, led the protesting workers. Baldev Singh Pandori, Narinder Singh Rataul and Jasbir Kaur were among the leaders who addressed the gathering. They alleged that the leaders of the ruling party had politicised NREGA under which the work is given to workers who have their affiliation with the ruling party and workers who have their affiliation with other parties are denied work.

The leaders flayed the Union government for decreasing the annual budget for the NREGA scheme. As a result, 100 days of work is not given to the workers and the payment is also not released on time. The leaders said that development works were left mid-way due to the shortage of funds. The leaders demanded unemployment allowance for workers.