more-in Hundreds of people, predominantly women, from Andarkottaram and nearby areas here petitioned Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao on Monday alleging denial of jobs under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The people staged a demonstration for a brief time on the Collectorate premises by displaying the cards issued to them under the job scheme. They said officials in the Block Development Office had denied them work after giving only less than 10 days of work in the present financial year, citing lack of allocation of funds. They said that repeated requests from eligible workers from Andarkottaram and nearby places, including Kalanjiyam, Kurinji Nagar, Chandra Nagar, Adi Sakthi Nagar, made to local body officials to allocate them work went unheeded. “Owing to last year’s drought, we could neither get agricultural work nor cultivate the small piece of land some of us have. The situation is same even now since kuruvai cultivation has failed this year also. Hence, we are relying mainly on the job scheme for buying our provisions,” said N. Selvi, a woman. The petitioners also alleged that they had not been paid the wages for the days they had worked. “Last year also there were some delays. This year, the delay is even more and the officials are not telling us when we will receive our wages,” she said. After submitting the petition to Collector Rao, the villagers said that he had assured to take up the issue with the Block Development Officer immediately and ensure that they were provided adequate days of work under the job scheme.

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