Click to play videoIs the tax payer's money actually reaching the rural poor? CNN-IBN assesses the NREGA in a special, week-long series Breaking New Ground. In the fourth installment, CNN-IBN travels to West Bengal where the scheme has been unsuccessful.
Amlasole (West Bengal): The Left may claim that the NREGA was its idea which it forced the UPA Government to implement but the ground reality in West Bengal suggests that the Left Front government has been among the poorest performers.
The government's failure is most apparent in those backward areas of West Bengal where its focus should have been the highest.
The only source of protein that 32-year-old Lalu Sabar can afford is eggs of the common ant. For these tribal of the Amlasole village in a Maoist-dominated remote corner of West Midnapore bordering Jharkhand, ant eggs are a common diet.
The state government has failed to implement the NREGA in this poor region.
“I was never employed because I do not have a job card any many others like me do not have cards,” says Lalu Sabar from Amlasole Villager.
“I was employed for two days about a fortnight ago,” tells another villager Sunil Sabar.
According to the state government a little over 32,000 job cards were distributed but no one has been offered employment for more than five to seven days and almost no work this financial year. CPI-M leader Kailash Mura feels there is a lack of political will.
“I think the Government doesn't allot enough money to implement its projects,” says Mura.
The local administration, however, feels there's more to it than just the will.
“First of all we need manpower support. But at the Binpur II Development Block there is very few staff, several important posts are vacant. And another part is the involvement of political functionaries, their consciousness, their involvement, their integrity. We are not finding that satisfactory enough,” says Block Development Officer, Binpur II Bhaskar Pal.
The tribal of Amlasole still work as migrant labour in neighbouring state Jhardkhand. NREGA has not brought them any opportunities.
With inputs from Debasish Nandy for CNN-IBN
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