Sanjay Sharma from Gram Adhikar Manch says not many voices are getting raised to reapir the functioning of MGNREGA. Earlier people used to say it is a new law but now people who helped it create are also silent. There is huge corruption in the scheme and people are suffering. He requests everyone to write letters to Govt to put pressure and continue to report on Swara about irregularities. For more Sanjay Ji can be rached at 09754332440

Sanjay Sharma from Gram Adhikar Manch says Chhattisgarh Govt has appointed Lokpal (ombudsman) for NREGA but has made no effort to tell people about it. Lokpals have recieved no complaint so far. The rights and duties of Lokpal are also not clear. He says why not Lokpals start looking at old complaints made in various forums and fears that if it continues like this then after sometime Govt may close down Lokpals saying there is nothing wrong in NREGA! Sanjay Ji can be reached at 09425582050

Sanjay Sharma says Rural development secretary of Chhattisgarh has passed an order for timely disbursement of MGNREGA wages. The new order says all the workers must be paid after every 6 days. Districts will monitor it every two weeks and will send monthly progress report to capital. After this order some long pending wage distribution at village level has started. He says but we should continue monitoring and reporting ground realities on Swara for effective implementation of this order. For more Sanjay can be reached on 09754332440

Sanjay Sharma from Surguja says officials keep complaining the NREGA payments are delayed because it takes time in entry in MIS ( Management Information System). But he wants to give the example of famous Pitbasu Bhoi case who was paid his wages for 100 days of work after it was picked up by many in media. He says this online system says Mr Bhoi worked for 88 days and was paid Rs 8800. Mr Bhoi has also applied for his late payment compensation but there is no movement on the complaint yet

Sanjay Sharma says Rural development department of Chhattisgarh government has started a campaign to identify people who have not requested for work under MGNREGA to remove their names from list within a month. He says as per current practice no one applies for work in Chhattisgarh, Gram Panchayats arrange for work, so how is the state going to find out who is not applying? He suggests instead why don’t state starts a campaign to pay due wages first? Sanjay ji can be reached on 09754332440