YADGIR: A grainy photo of a row of male and female labourers standing on a sun-beaten land in a North Karnataka village reveals more than the benefits of job guarantee scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), reaching farmers in distress.
This is the story of a scam, of men misusing women labourers’ job cards to claim wages under MGNREGA. The photo shows some male labourers draping saree and drawing pallu to demurely cover their faces. And they struggle to look authentic so that their wage claims – helped by long-shot photo and its low-resolution image – look more credible.
Under MGNREGA, both male and female workers are paid Rs 370 per head per day, effective April 1 this year.
‘Saree-clad men illegally claimed ₹3 lakh benefits’
Sources in Yadgir zilla panchayat claimed that men in women’s attire with fake attendance photographs have illegally claimed benefits totalling Rs 3 lakh.
The photo in question was taken near a canal in the district’s Malhar village in Yadgir taluk where dredging work had been carried out. It was then uploaded via National Mobile Monitoring Service, asserting the work was completed by a team that included female workers.
Sources in the know said huge labour force migrates from North Karnataka to Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Goa, Mumbai, Pune or Hyderabad in search of construction work from Nov to May, a period when heatwave grips the region. Civil work is allotted to workers registered under MGNREGA. A local resource person who liaises between zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat identifies and allots work based on eligibility and availability of person days under the scheme.
Yadgir zilla panchayat officials told TOI a formal complaint will be lodged and a probe will formally be taken up if they find substance in the allegations.