While i was in JNU, RaGa (Rahul Gandhi) paid a 'media sans' visit to JNU. 800-1000 strong research scholars, students & wanna-be political bigwigs scurried for a foothold space to greet & chant 'bhajan', also 'bhasan', to the Gandhi scion. No wonder V.I.P-giri has its day even in a rational thinkers & fundamentalists infested 'Live & Let Live' JNU campus. I saw from a distant one Economics research scholar questioned RaGa "What did the Congress govt. do for the 'aam admi' (the 'mango people' a.k.a. the common man, not Anna/Kejriwal's mobo-cracy)?" I heard RaGa quipped "NREGA" with gusto. That's RaGa's style, very much like my own, a unique man of few befitting words (response). I don't follow much of what was said, hailed and hooted that night as i was with a girl. (Well, that's another story & to put to rest your never-ending curiosity- she was 'Just Another Girl'; To substantiate this claim listen to The Killer's- Just Another Girl...lol)
NREGA has since then become the 'cherry on top' for the scam struck Congress to put down all allegations, infamy(s) & appease the mango people in general & above all, in particular to keep their political rivals at bay.
NREGA, with its shining armour & ready to wage war against poverty, had put C.C.pur, a nondescript dist. in Manipur (I don't know much of how things are done elsewhere but i bet it won't be a world of difference), in the good books of the govt. at the Centre as it was awarded the 'Best Performing' dist. (2009-10) alongside 9 other lucky dist. selected from throughout the country during the 'MGNREGA Sammelan' held at Vigyan Bhavan at New Delhi. (http://manipuronline.com/headlines/pm-awards-churachandpur-mgnrega-feat/2011/02/03).Well, that's now only history & the modus operandi for any administration (s)/ office(s) in Manipur with respect to public related works is first gain trust, then rust.
This is true of C.C.pur: Mango people now doesn't get to work 100 days a year, doesn't get paid the promised amount of Rs. 100-130 minimum wages & one doesn't get to keep 'Job card' under their pillow at home. NREGA works didn't cover the length & breadth of the entire village. Only some strategic location were given priority-constructed & painted to last for the next bill/fund to arrive; the neglected areas remain neglected as is the official norms with the Central & state govt.
I heard people lamenting that one village-chief/Thakur made his villagers work for his under- construction palatial building with NREGA's fresh & crispy notes. There are rumours doing the round too that scores of ghost village & villagers came into being. Such village & all villages alike is not free from extortion; self-acclaimed 'nationalist org' but 'proscribed outfit' by media had a plum share of MGNREGS fund. With the presence of uncountable outfits, it's beyond my calculation how much that would amount to.
Like most 'public related works' & policies, NREGA too is not free from irregularities & conspiracies. Smt. Lazarus, DC -cum- DPC MGNREGA, C.C.pur stole all the lime-light & amass the envy of all her colleague at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi but after all that laurels & accolades every thing related to MGNREGS went kaput & awry. It brings about a lot of changes; good on the outside, fatal inside.
Paddy fields make way for the creation of 'New Kholui' ('Kholui' means 'Old village';'New Kholui' connotes the perplexing situation,in naming, arising out of the ever increasing new village). Thakurs who once rode a cycle, now rides a mo-bike, those who rode a mo-bike now rides a car. The divide between the rich & the poor is now 'jaw-droppingly' poles apart-a trend which is not healthy for a close-knit society like ours.
The mango people had to come to terms with rampant honking & nausea-tic smoke polluting the once thin & clean air with the sudden appearance of heavy traffic on NH-150 & this further led to innumerable road mishaps & human casualties. It's rather not really surprising as the dist. has no authorised 'Driving School' & no age-bar to get a Driving license. If you could dole out a crispy 500/1k bucks without bating an eyelid, "it can be done'-in a jiffy.
We were known as hard-working & honest 'village-simpleton' as far as i could pee on my own. (That's a pee-lief (sic) to learn something as private & personal as peeing without troubling anyone). The fact is MGNREGS has made everyone lazy, idle & dishonest. None who works in MGNREGS's semi-skilled labour really works; they just show up with spades & daggers to put their names on the paper. Those abled & strong won't come at all, for reasons best suited to their rational thinking; only senior citizens, women & children would turn up taking up the gigantic work halfheartedly. Children learnt the 'golden tips' to be lazy & left the older ones, who sweat toiling under the scorching heat, fuming & cursing. The age-old tradition of respecting the elders & letting them work less took a back-seat & none give it a damn!
The result-apart from saying 'something is better than nothing' it has none. Some workers play 'hide & seek' literally while there are some 'you'll miss if you happen to blink' during working hours. There are some who came for 'time-pass', mostly teens, as they have nothing better to do at home or wants to escape bore-dom, study or domestic chores. While idling, the pillars of our future, becomes the much dreaded-devil's workshop.
NREGA corrodes us in & out, and in a hindsight it is only a mere vote-bank politics & a tool to keep the mango people a puppet in the hands of the govt.
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