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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Mandya: Four of family killed on spot in Airavat bus-car collision on Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway
Mandya: Four members of a family were killed on the spot in an accident reported on Thursday on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway stretch near Tubinakere in the taluk, where a state transport bus hit the car they were traveling in.
The deceased are identified as Raje Urs (51), his wife Nischitha (45), relative Chandru (62) and Chandru’s wife Suvedini Rani (50).
They were traveling from Bengaluru to Mysuru when an Airavat bus of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) hit their car near Tubinakere, situated in the jurisdiction limits of Mandya Rural Police Station. The car is reported to be completely damaged due to the intensity of the collision.
DIG (South Division) Boralingayya and Mandya Superintendent of Police Mallikarjun Baladandi have visited the accident site and conducted an inspection.
