Agitated over the non-clearance of MGNREGA liabilities of various Panchayats of District Udhampur pending for the last around 6 years, the activists of Panthers Party led by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman-JKNPP and former Minister held a massive protest at Udhampur and gheraoed the office of Assistant Commissioner Development. The protestors raised slogans of “RDD Hai Hai”, “ACD Hai Hai”, “MGNREGA ki liabilities ka bhugtaan karo, bhugtaan karo”, “PMAY scheme mein dhandhalion ki jaanch karo, jaanch karo” etc.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that the Rural Development Deptt had confirmed the pendency of MGNREGA liabilities amounting to Rs. 18 crore for District Udhampur which had remained unpaid since 2016. He said that non release of the said pending payments had adversely impacted upon the livelihood of thousands of wage earners and other workers who have been made to suffer due to apathetic approach of the concerned authorities.
He said that wrongful diversion of MGNREGA funds for purchase of tree guards, load carriers and expenditure on installation of huge hoardings was responsible for funds crisis resulting in untold hardships to the poor labour force and other workers. Similarly, he pointed out that 2nd and 3rd instalments under PMAY scheme had also been arbitrarily withheld for years by the RDD pertaining to several hundreds of eligible beneficiaries due to vested interests of the concerned govt functionaries. He said that several irregularities reported in the identification of houses to be constructed under PM Awas Yojana had been pushed under the carpet for reasons best known to the authorities concerned.
Several RDD works were allowed to linger on for years together without taking any action to ensure their time bound completion, rued Mr. Singh.
He said that irregularities were more pronounced in the blocks of Chenani, Latti, Dudu, Ramnagar, Seuna, Pancheri, Ghordi and Lander, Mr. Singh called for high level probe into the functioning of the said Deptt. He referred to several rural works in Panchayats of Kullessar, Gharian, Dhandhal, Bindla, Sira, Mada etc which had been abandoned half way with no action taken by authorities concerned to complete them. Quoting particular instances, Mr. Singh said that while the Primary School Chowki building (Kullessar) could not be completed in seven years, the payment for Panchayat Ghar Rassain had been kept unpaid for eight years due to rampant corruption in the Deptt.
The NPP leaders were later assured of immediate remedial action by the ADDC Udhampur who reached the protesting activists of the party and said that all the aforesaid issues would be appropriately addressed in a time bound manner.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included BDC Chairman Ramnagar, Des Raj; Rampaul Bhagat, Teranter Singh, Subash Chander, Rajesh Sharma, Dharam Singh, Karnail Singh, Balwant Raj and all Sarpanches.
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