From Our Correspondent
TURA, Nov 5: Soon after winding up his tour of the various C&RD blocks under all the five districts of Garo Hills, BJP vice president and Tura MDC, Bernard N Marak, has suggested a slew of measures to be taken to ensure that benefits sanctioned by the Centre reach the beneficiaries in each of the blocks in the Garo Hills region.
In his letter addressed to the Deputy commissioners of all five districts on Sunday, the MDC said, “Firstly, on my visit I found that none of the blocks and VECs display the Permanent Waitlist as per the guideline which has led to confusion and misunderstanding apparently leading to an exploitation of the beneficiaries by agents who had the permanent waitlist. These agents compelled the poor beneficiaries to pay huge ransom to avail the schemes that were freely available to them. We would appreciate it if the Permanent Waitlists are put up immediately in the blocks and villages. We will verify the steps taken in a week”.
Bernard observed that blocks in many districts were understaffed and due to lack of gram sevaks, their female counterparts (gram sevikas) were doing the field work to cover the circles.
He urged the authorities concerned to take steps to fill up the vacant posts for better implementation of the schemes.
“The infrastructure, power back up and limited digital equipment are also issues in many blocks. RGSA, DDU GKY staff’s salaries are not paid, which should be taken up with the concerned heads,” he added.
Bernard also pointed out that wages under MGNREGA are pending and missed out in many VECs during online uploading.
Villages without mobile connectivity need to be identified and necessary steps should be taken to connect those areas as soon as possible, he said while adding that the outstanding amount of materials is also very high.
According to the MDC there were also complaints from women that they were not given a chance to lead the VECs as proper elections were not held
The BJP vice president also felt that the Aadhaar card issue was another major issue in the villages as people think it is related to 666 and banks on the other hand are not linking the beneficiary bank accounts with the Aadhaar card.
“This has created a big hurdle in initiating Aadhaar based payment to the beneficiaries. Banks should be requested to link Aadhaar to the beneficiary accounts. In South Garo Hills, there should be a bank and mobile connectivity at Rongara and beyond as beneficiaries from that block have to travel around 80 kms to Baghmara for all official activities,” he observed.
Also pointing out that Centre Schemes are not related to the local MLAs, Bernard said that MLAs and their agents should be kept in abeyance during the implementation of the Centre schemes.
“VEC secretaries in some villages are working as political agents, which should not be encouraged. VEC secretaries and Gram Sevaks should work as per the guideline of the Centre Schemes. Strong action should be taken against agents who demanded money from the beneficiaries, as these schemes are free,” he demanded.