MNREGA workers block road in Moga

Tribune News Service

Moga, January 12

Unpaid Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREGA) scheme workers blocked the Mudki-Baghapurana road at Langeana village in Moga district on Thursday.

They alleged the government was delaying the release of their wages. The rural works under this scheme had been halted by the workers at Langeana and nearby villages due to the paucity of funds.

Raising slogans against Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, they alleged local authorities had also failed to provide work to thousands of enrolled workers in the district. Under the scheme, it is mandatory for the government to provide a minimum of 100 days of work.

Kuldip Singh, a local leader of MNREGA workers, said that the government has arranged only 50 days of work for the workers in the past year. Wages to thousands of workers for this work were not being paid for the past six months, he alleged.

Similar complaints were also reported from many villages in the Moga, Dharamkot and Nihalsinghwala sub-divisions.

“We have written to the state Commission for Scheduled Castes, labour commissioner and the district magistrate several times, but to no avail,” alleged the agitating workers.

The workers warned they would move the High Court and block all national highways in the district if the district administration did not pay them within 15 days.

In the evening, the blockade was lifted by the workers after an assurance by the local BDPO that the administration would restart the works and release the wages soon.