Faridkot: A meeting of 'Mates' (supervisors) from various villages was convened today at Comrade Amolak Bhavan, Faridkot, under the chairmanship of Comrade Veer Singh Kameana, District President of the NREGA Employment-Receiving Workers' Union (Registered). Addressing the meeting, he stated that the Central Government has renamed the "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme" to the "Viksit Bharat Ji Ram Ji Scheme," a change that came into effect on July 1st.
If we understand the meaning of 'guarantee,' it implies something permanent; however, a 'scheme' implies something that can be altered or discontinued at any time. Consequently, it appears that the future of 1.8 million workers and employees in Punjab is shrouded in uncertainty. Under this scheme, the Central Government has asked the state government to contribute a 40 percent share, whereas the Punjab government has not provided anything to the workers and employees so far.
Subsequently, NREGA advisor Comrade Balkar Singh Sahota pointed out that in many villages, the authorities have halted the guaranteed work for NREGA laborers. He remarked that while there is talk of providing 125 days of employment, the workers are not even receiving 50 days of work. NREGA employees in Punjab have not received their salaries for approximately six months and have been continuously staging protests and demonstrations.
Our city of Faridkot—the sacred land of Baba Farid Ji—is littered with heaps of garbage. For 18 to 19 years, employees and workers have been performing their duties with utmost dedication, yet the governments remain silent despite witnessing the situation. Sukhmander Singh (Mate, Dhudi), Gurpreet Kaur (Mate), Kuldeep Kaur (Mate, Kotsukhiya), Anju Kaur (Mate, Rajowala), Karamjit Kaur (Mate, Golewala), Kamaldeep Kaur (Mate, Golewala), Tarlok Singh (Rajowala), and Lavpreet Kaur (Mate, Pipli), among others, were present on this occasion.