Click to play videoKanker: Safeguarding votes will be the key concern in the election session for the Congress as its ambitious employment guarantee scheme will come to haunt the party in the coming Assembly Elections. This is the key issue that is there in the minds of tribal voters.
Chhattisgarh is the first state to go to polls on November 14 and the Congress has missed on various opportunities to woe their voters here.
An opportunity came in the form of National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) to turn one of the oldest fields in Koilibeda, a village in Chhattisgarh, into a playground was completely lost by the party.
This was one of the opportunities which could have helped the Congress in earning some political good will but the villagers say it was completely wasted. They say that the work done by the party was poor and unfair.
“This ground became worse after leveling. The kids slip and fall, this is far worse now than it was,” says a resident Rakesh Kumar Shukla.
For Nirasha Bai, it was hard work and no pay despite the strict provision under NREGA that each person must be paid within 15 days of work.
She says that she has worked for 90 days and now months have passed but there is no sign of her wages. Many trips to the sarpanch (head of village) have yielded nothing. In fact, there is no record of her work at all.
“We went to the sarpanch They did not pay us. We worked so hard but they just didn’t pay us anything. They didn’t even mark us present.,” Nirasha Bai says.
A little distance away is Rainbai, the burdern of the family rests firmly on her shoulders as her physically ailing husband cannot work.
“Everyone has seen us working but now they are not paying us. If we had plucked tendu leaves instead we would have got money,” Rainbai says.
False muster rolls is not the only form of corruption, use of machines is another. Ironically the man who used his tractor was not paid.
"I made 55 trips on my tractor. I earned Rs 16,000, the sarpanch gave me work but I haven't been paid,” says Nathu Patel.
The NREGA is one programme that the Congress party and the UPA Government is extremely proud of and hopes will help it win elections but on the ground, the reality seems to be quite different.
The BJP state government is in charge of implementing the NREGA on the ground through the panchayati system but the anger against the state government is diluted because even in areas where Congress is in power at the grassroots level, NREGA has not fulfilled its promise; the Congress sarpanch makes an admission.
“We used tractor to level the playground. We didn’t have eough workers,” says sarpanch Laxmi Duggal.
But people on the ground are not forgiving the Government.
“Who will vote for such a corrupt Government,” says a resident Deora Singh.
They can understand no work and no pay but not hard work and no pay.
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