68-year-old Chinu Bangal has been hopeful of getting her wages, due for over two years, once she is in the national capital. At least that was what she was told, said Chinu, when Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers planned the ongoing protest against the BJP-led Centre at Jantar Mantar.
One could hear the high-decibel sound from the loudspeakers more than 200 metres away from where the stage was set at Jantar Mantar on an unusually hot October afternoon on Tuesday. The crowd would hide the faces of the speakers, but the giant LED screens flashed the speeches right from the entry point amid heavy security deployment.
The whole place came across as an enclosed fortress with most exits being sealed with barriers and only single entry points being opened for letting people in and out. Police vehicles dotted the streets alongside TMC flags, banners, and pamphlets.
Scores of party workers along with those registered under flagship central government schemes including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and PM AWAS Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), among others sat on the ground, most without even the large green mat laid only up till the enclosure on the tar road. The heat and dust did not seem to bother them, as they patiently listened to the speeches one after the other and raised slogans in between.
The workers have been protesting against funds not being released by the Centre to the state government under these schemes, owing to which they have been denied their wages pending for over two years.
“If we come here to the rajdhani (the national capital) we will have some hope of getting our dues. This is what we were told and I came down all the way here. My son and I worked for about 70-80 days during the Covid pandemic, for which the wages amounting to around Rs 15,000-16,000 have been pending. They made us strive so hard for the work and now there’s no money for it,” said Chinu, showing a copy of her MGNREGS job card.
She was also listed as a beneficiary under PMAY-G, the 68-year-old said, but her name has been removed from it now. “I don’t know what happened. My son and I visited the government offices several times, but we could not get to know why the name was taken off the list. We live in a broken house and since the work under MGNREGS stopped, we have been living hand-to-mouth, doing some daily wage work when we are able to get it,” said Chinu from Debagram village, North 24 Parganas.
The Centre has been at odds with the state, over the former alleging “corruption” and “misuse of funds” in the centrally-funded social security schemes. The West Bengal government has been claiming that funds due for the beneficiaries have not been released.
The central government has not released money under MGNREGS to West Bengal since December 2021 over alleged misuse of funds. The matter is now in the Calcutta High Court. The scheme has not been functioning in the state since.
MGNREGS allows 100 days of unskilled work to adult members of a household in rural India. The scheme worked as a safety net for scores of migrant workers across the country, who came back to their villages during the pandemic.
The beneficiaries of the schemes say that they have just been caught up in this unending BJP-TMC tussle while none of the governments are paying heed to the real cause denying workers their pay for the work they have actually done.
Anil Bawri from Pandabeswar, another MGNREGS worker, said that the Centre sent audit teams several times, then the state government submitted a report, and so on. The inquiries can go on, but can they actually deny poor workers their dues, he asked?
“The central audit teams took measurements of the ponds and the worksites and inspected offices. Now what goes on in the records we don’t know, but we worked and we have the proof for that, so they should at least pay our pending dues first,” said Bawri, who too has around Rs 7,000 due for the work.
Kinshuk Rout, a TMC cadre, said that there are lakhs of workers in the state who have been struggling to make ends meet due to the stoppage of the 100-day work scheme. “They have come here with the hope to get their due wages, but it seems unlikely till this tussle between the two governments is settled. The poor have to pay the price,” he said.
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