INDIA: Post Master misappropriates wages of villagers in Orissa

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – HUNGER ALERT PROGRAMME

Hunger Alert Case: AHRC-HAG-002-2011

30 August 2011
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INDIA: Post Master misappropriates wages of villagers in Orissa

ISSUES: Food security; corruption; right to work; right to land
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the 30 villagers engaged in road construction from February 2011 onward under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) did not receive their full wages in March. All testified that the Post Master deducted certain amounts from two months wages in the name of loyalty whereas the passbooks say that all were fully paid. The villagers who are mostly illiterate refused to pay but were forced to do so. It is also alleged that the Post Master misappropriated the wages of workers from other villages. The government fund aiming to ensure the livelihood and food security of the poor is continuously abused by the corrupt officials.

CASE NARRATIVE:

A total of seventeen villagers who have job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have been constructing a road connected to the village since February 2011. They live in Alanaguda village, Paikapulbeda Panchayat, Dasmantpur block, Koraput in Orissa.

In March, the first payment was deposited on their passbooks and they were informed to withdraw their wages in late March. When they went to the post office located in Paikapulbeda village which is five kilometers away from Alanaguda village to collect their wages individually, the Post Master Mr. Narasingha Pako forced them to pay a fee. The villagers refused, but had no choice but pay since the Post Master has the authority to distribute their payment. The Post Master filled the withdrawal form for all as out of 17 families 15 families are illiterate. Later the post master distributed the payment to the villagers after deducting his fee. Out of 17, four have not received even a single rupee, 11 received less than what they were supposed to be paid. On the contrary, he recorded that all withdrew the full wage. The villagers and deducted wages are as listed below. 
                                                                                                                                 (Unit: rupee)

* OBC: Other Backward Class
Alanaguda is a village which comes under Paikapulbeda Panchayat. The village has 382 families and out of which 144 families are from tribes, officially categorized as Scheduled Tribes in India. Most of the families depend upon agriculture, but a few have title to the land. Agricultural produce from the land is not sufficient as land is not fertile and the villagers do not have effective irrigation system. As many other villagers, they are highly dependent on the government employment scheme for their livelihood, which is rather temporary. Even the government scheme is not implemented properly due to corrupt practice by the relevant officials, for example a Post Master in this case, which causes hunger to the poor in rural area.

Since the MGNREGS was launched in Paikapulbeda Panchayat in 2006, the villagers were engaged in road construction in their own villages in 2009. Accordingly, the villagers of Alanaguda village worked for the road within the village. Later on in early 2011, 20 villagers worked in the neighboring village named Jholaguda village, which is 5 kilometers away from Alanaguda village. None of workers have yet received wages, which is a violation of the MGNREG Act. The Act says that payment should be done in 7 to 15 days of work. For instance, Mr. Abhi Lamta who worked for road construction from RD road to Paiko Street has not received a wage of 700 rupees. He has gone to Panchayat office several times to demand on his wages, which was refused. At present, the work has stopped due to heavy rain and the villagers face serious food insecurity due to lack of resources and food.

Misappropriation of the government fund is not the only reason. The government does not pay the wages on time violating MGNREG Act. Thus the villagers have no other choice but migration to other states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra where they are mentally and physically abused. Further the tribes applied for claims in accordance with the Forest (rights) Act immediately after the act came into force in 2008 to ensure their rights to land. The claims have not been settled till today.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

This case is one of the examples of corruption aggravating food security of the vulnerable communities in rural remote area. Yet, this type of corruption is not taken into account by the government. Recently a massive campaign against the corruption is rapidly emerged calling for anti corruption bill in India. In campaign, people from different caste, profession, and class join hands to raise their voice against corruption as being fed up by the corruption, which is considerably prevalent on the ground as seen in this case. The campaign pressurizes the government to pass the law, yet the government is reluctant to bring lower level officials under the purview of this act.

One of the food security related government scheme, the MGNREGS aims to ensure food accessibility by providing employment to the families in rural area and creating rural livelihood assets to improve the situation of poverty, unemployment and track distress migration etc. The MGNREG Act suggests ensuring the timely payment of wages, which is in fact not efficient in practice. As proved in this case, the government fund for MGNREGS often goes to the corrupt officials’ pockets while the poor beneficiaries face hunger.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write a petition letter to the concerned government agencies to ensure the right to food of the poor and eradicate the corruption which is one of the major causes of food insecurity in India. The AHRC also writes a letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate food.

To support this appeal please click here:

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SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear __________,

INDIA: Call for immediate investigation into misappropriation of the government fund for the poor in Orissa

Name of the affected: villagers of Alanaguda villager who work under MGNREGS
Name of the alleged perpetrator: Post Master Mr. Narasingha Pako attached to the Branch Post Office of Paikophulbeda village
Place of incident: Alanaguda village, Paikopulbeda Panchayat, Dasmantpur Block, Koraput district, Orissa
Date of incident: since March 2011

I am writing to covey my deep concern regarding a right to food violation case of 17 families living in Alanaguda village of Paikaphulbeda, Dasmantpur block, Koraput District, Orissa. It is alleged that the corrupt postmaster of Branch Paikaphulbeda has been misappropriating the government funds allocated for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). According to the testimonies of the villagers who worked under the scheme, the postmaster deducted some money from the wages when the villagers came to the post office to collect their wages.

I have received information that in March, the first payment was deposited on their passbooks and workers were informed to withdraw their wages in late March. When they went to the post office located in Paikapulbeda village which is five kilometers away from Alanaguda village to collect their wages individually, the Post Master Mr. Narasingha Pako forced them to pay a service fee. The villagers refused, but had no choice but pay since the Post Master has the authority to distribute the payment. The Post Master filled the withdrawal form for all. Fifteen out of 17 workers are illiterate. Later the post master distributed the payment to the workers after deducting an indefinite fee from each. Out of 17, four have not received even a single rupee, 11 received less than what they were supposed to be paid. On the contrary, he recorded that all withdrew the full wage. I am informed that total payment for 17 workers is 26, 600 INR but they received only 15,850 INR. Accordingly unpaid wage in total is 10,750 INR (238 USD).

Alanaguda is a village which comes under Paikapulbeda Panchayat. The village has 382 families and out of which 144 families are from tribal community. Most of the people living in this village depend upon agriculture, but the land holdings are very less. Tribals living in the village are cultivating encroached land but as mentioned earlier that their land holdings are less due to which they are not able to fulfill the needs of their family. So they are much dependent on the government employment schemes. However the government schemes are not implemented properly and the poor's money goes into the corruption which causes hunger to them.

I have learned that MGNREGS was launched in Orissa in 2006, but the villagers were engaged in road construction in their own villages in 2009. Accordingly, the villagers of Alanaguda village worked for the road within the village. Later on in early 2011, 20 villagers worked in the neighboring village named Jholaguda village, which is 5 kilometers away from Alanaguda village, but none of workers have yet received wages which is a violation of the NREGA act which says that payment should be done in 7 to 15 days of work. Mr. Abhi Lamta who worked for road construction from RD road to Paiko Street under MGNREGS has not received a wage of 700 rupees. He has gone to Panchayat office several times to demand on his wages, which was refused. At present, the work has stopped due to heavy rain and the villagers face serious food insecurity due to lack of resources and food.

I am aware that misappropriation of the government fund is not the only reason causing hunger and food insecurity in the village. The government does not pay them wages on time violating MGNREG Act. Thus the villagers have no other choice but migration to other states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra where they are mentally and physically abused. Further the tribes applied for claims in accordance with the Forest (rights) Act immediately after the act came into force in 2008 to ensure their rights to land. The claims have not been settled till today.

I am of the opinion that corruption is rampant in India, which drives the vulnerable communities like tribes in rural area into serious food insecurity and hunger. The government, however, does not seem to have strong willingness to eradicate corruption. Recently a massive campaign against the corruption is rapidly emerged calling for anti-corruption bill in India. In campaign, people from different caste, profession, and class join hands to raise their voice against corruption as being fed up by the corruption, which is considerably prevalent on the ground as seen in this case.

I am aware that MGNREGS is one of the schemes which aim to ensure food accessibility by providing employment to the families in rural area and creating rural livelihood assets to improve the situation of poverty, unemployment and track distress migration etc. The MGNREG Act suggests ensuring the timely payment of wages, which is in fact not efficient in practice. As proved in this case, the government fund for MGNREGS often goes to the corrupt officials’ pockets while the poor beneficiaries face hunger.

Nevertheless, rampant corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency have prevented it from entirely fulfilling this goal so far. I am aware that although social audits are supposed to be held for every project implemented under this scheme, the villagers in reality have very little legal remedies because of the neglect and the corruption of the government officials or simply because they are unaware of those procedures.

I therefore, urge you to conduct immediate investigation into the case and take a legal action against the relevant officials who are involved in the corrupt practice. In addition, I urge you to take proper step as to the applications submitted by the tribes who claim their right to land.

I am of the opinion that their corrupt practice violates the right to food of the poor and aggravates food insecurity in India. Most of all, payment and compensation should be granted to the workers in accordance with the laws and the policies. Please be noted that the Government of India still fails to ensure freedom from hunger and the right to food to all although it is legally obliged by the international human rights laws.

I look forward to your immediate response.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Naveen Patnaik
Chief Minister
Naveen Nivas, Aerodrome Road
P.O.Bhubaneswar, Dist. Khurda
751001 Orissa
INDIA
Fax: +91 674 239 0562
Email: cmo@ori.nic.in

2. Surendra Nath Tripathi, IAS
Commissioner-cum-Secretary
Department of Rural Development
Government of Orissa, Bhubaneswar
INDIA
Fax: +91 674 253 6641
Email: rdsec@ori.nic.in

3. Mr. Bikram Keshari Arukh
State Minister
Ministry of Rural Development
Bhubaneswar, Orissa
INDIA
Fax: +91 674 2536 641
Email: rdsec@ori.nic.in

4. Mr. Mahedeo Singh Khandela
Minister of State for Tribal Affairs
Ministry of Tribal Affairs
Room No. 135- 'C' Wing, Nirman Bhawan
New Delhi – 110011
INDIA
Fax: +91 11 2306 2771

5. Mr. Santosh Sarangi, IAS
Commissioner-cum-Secretary
Department of SC & ST Development
Government of Orissa
Bhubaneswar, Orissa
INDIA
Fax: +91 674 239 3249
Email: sarangi.santosh@gmail.com

6. Sachin R. Jadhav
Collector of Koraput
Collectora
Koraput
Orissa
INDIA -764020
Email: dm-koraput@nic.in

7. Justice K. G. Balakrishnan
Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg
New Delhi 110001
INDIA
Fax: + 91 11 2338 4863
E-mail: chairnhrc@nic.in

8. Mr. Pradeep Kumar
Commissioner of Central Vigilance Commission
Satarkata Bhavan
A-Block, GPO Complex, INA
New Delhi - 110 023
INDIA
Fax: +91 11 24651010/24616286
E-mail: vigilance@nic.in, cvc@nic.in

Thank you.

Right to Food Programme (foodjustice@ahrc.asia)
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)