No work for them under MGNREGA, UP villagers take up canal-cleaning project on their own
Banda (UP): Unable to find work under the MGNREGA, a group of villagers here have started on the laborious task of cleaning a canal so that water reaches its tail-end.
About 70 labourers from Naugava village in Naraini tehsil have decided to do it for free a shramdaan to give life again to land turning barren. Authorities now want to pay them for the job they have taken upon themselves, but the villagers have turned down the offer.
Shyamlal, one of the workers, said villagers were not finding work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
A stretch of the 40-km-long canal between Guhala Kalan and Divli villages was also not cleaned for years, he adds.
Due to this, the fertile agriculture land was becoming barren. I was sitting idle since I did not get any job under the MGNREGA. Then I thought that I should clean the canal so that water reaches its tail-end and we are able to grow foodgrains to feed our children," he says.
Another labourer, Ramswaroop, says people from nearby villages have donated food to them, which is being cooked by women involved in the sharmdaan .
Gulabrani, Mamta, Sumitra and Rani are among the women taking care of the task. They have named their kitchen "Shramdaan Rasoi". At present, 65-70 people are involved in the initiative, says Gulabrani.
"Till a few years ago, crops were irrigated by water from this canal. But for the past two to four years due to the non-cleaning of silt, there was a shortage of water," she says.
Sumitra, who is also cooking food with Gulabrani, says if every agriculture field gets water, crops can be produced and people will not have to go to other places to earn a living .
Meanwhile, the Executive Engineer of the Irrigation Department in Banda, Sharad Singh, said, "As we got news on Saturday of labourers doing the 'shramdaan', a departmental staffer was sent.
We spoke to them over the phone. Their work is praiseworthy. We offered to pay wages but they did not agree to it," he says.
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Assam to lift all cases against Koch Rajbongshis in Foreigners' Tribunals: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
Guwahati, Apr 4 (PTI): The Assam cabinet has decided to lift all cases pending against people from the Koch Rajbongshi community in the Foreigners' Tribunals, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday.
They will also no longer carry the tag of 'D' or doubtful voters, he said.
''There are 28,000 cases pending in different Foreigners' Tribunals in the state against people of the community. The cabinet has taken a historic decision of lifting the cases with immediate effect,'' Sarma said at a press conference here after the cabinet meeting.
The government believes that the Koch Rajbongshis are an indigenous community of the state and they are an inextricable part of ''our social and cultural fabric'', he asserted.
The people of this community are poor and have suffered a lot over the years, he said.
''They will no longer carry the tag of foreigners or ‘D’ voters,'' the CM said.
Foreigners Tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, particularly in Assam, established to determine if a person residing in India is a "foreigner" as defined by the Foreigners Act of 1946, based on the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order of 1964.
These tribunals are designed to address matters related to citizenship and the presence of “foreigners” in India, specifically focusing on cases where someone is suspected of being an illegal immigrant.
There are 100 Foreigners’ Tribunals across Assam.
The Koch Rajbongshis have a sizeable presence in Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya, and parts of Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan, and they demand Scheduled Tribe status.
