West Bengal workers wear masks, take part in MGNREGA

KOLKATA: Wearing masks and following social distancing, people in rural Bengal are working under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
The country’s flagship rural employment project resumed last week after the ministry of home affairs (MHA) on April 15 gave its go-ahead for jobs under MGNREGA, except for containment zones.“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is also keeping a close watch so immediate relief can be provided to the rural workforce, including those who have returned from other states after the Covid-19 lockdown,” a senior official of the state panchayat and rural development department said.
The MHA is monitoring too and it has asked the district officials to upload geo-tagged pictures to show that the social distancing norms are being followed.
Projects under water conservation, tree plantation, housing construction and pond-digging where people can spread out while working are being identified for the MGNREGA resumption. “The district officials are ensuring social distancing among the workers, supplying free soap, hand-wash, potable water, washable masks and sanitizers,” the panchayat department official said. He said even as MGNREGA provides for up to 100 days’ work in a year to every rural household, the government hoped to create other means for employing migrant labourers, who don’t have job cards.
In April, receiving a letter from Rajesh Bhushan, secretary, rural development ministry, Mehboob Rahaman, zilla parishad sabadhipati, Hooghly directed all the 207 panchayats to get cracking. “We are engaging labourers in construction of feeder canals, digging ponds and other work,” he said, adding, “Work has started in 18 blocks.”
The Murshidabad district administration was one of the firsts to reinitiate MGNREGA last Monday, with a plan of providing 10,311 man days and enrolling 55,761 people. The most number of man days were sanctioned in Beldanga-I, Nabagram, Khargram, Bhagawangola-I blocks (5,000 to 6,500). Sudipto Porel, additional district magistrate (zilla parishad) said “We want to top in the MGNREGA performance next year.”
For now, work has taken off in Canning, Basanti, Kulpi, Sagar and Pathar Pratima blocks of South 24-Parganas. The rest 18 blocks will follow soon, officials said. Work has restarted in 133 out of the 170 Purulia gram panchayats, for 1,687 projects, with 18,000 people. In West Midnapore, work started last Tuesday in 209 out of 211 panchayats, involving 36,564 people, who get paid after six days’ work. MGNREGA has also restarted in all the 185 Nadia panchayats, mostly for housing and plantation projects, zilla sabadhipati Rikta Kundu said.
Around 17,000 people of Bankura district are into digging pits and restoring canals, even in the tribal belt of Khatra, Ranibandh, Sarenga and Raipur. “Obeying rural ministry’s guidelines, we have minimum heads in a particular area to ensure social distancing,” district magistrate Arun Prasad said. Mrityunjay Murmu, zilla parishad sabhadhipati, added, “Though our district is not much affected by Covid-19, people are in dire straits. MGNREGA should help them.”
In Darjeeling and Kalimpong, mostly last year’s schemes are being taken up, officials said. The same goes for Malbazar, Nagrakata, Metialli, Maynaguri and Dhupguri blocks of Jalpaiguri districts and Matigara, Naxalbari, Khoribari and Phansidewa blocks under the Siliguri Mahukuma Parishad.
(With inputs from Falguni Banerjee, Sujoy Khanra, Amit Singh Deo, Sukumar Mahato, Pinak Priya Bhattacharya, Monotosh Chakraborty, Ashish Poddar, Deep Gazmer and Roshan Gupta)