Introducing CRANTI
Posted in Blog
20.07.2009
Bharat Singh Jhala is one of the foremost activists of CRANTI – the Citizens Rights and Action Trust, India. A spin off of the recent election campaign, CRANTI is founded to further the work set into motion earlier this year. Mr. Jhala has been travelling to every village in the constituency, in an attempt to delve deeper into the issues citizens are dealing with.
Here are some of the things he has been witness to:
- Through an RTI application that was previously submitted through the Gandhinagar Taluka Panchayat Court, it was known that 73 villages were to receive Rs. 12,50,000 under the Employment Guarantee Scheme. When cross checked with the sarpanch of Nabhoi village, on 2nd July 2009, it was known that no work has been done in Nabhoi village under the Employment Guarantee Scheme.
- As of 3rd July 2009 in Adalaj village, it was known that Adalaj was allocated a grant of Rs. 20,000 under the NREG scheme; but as of now, work has not been initiated.
- In Adalaj village, here are 400-500 people from the Datani and Vanzara castes, who were given a notice by the Gram Panchayat to vacate their land. They have been given job cards but are unable to get a job. We have asked them to urge the villagers for work/employment under the Employment Guarantee Scheme.
- In Goraj village, the poor do not even have a BPL card, nor are have they received assistance from any Scheme or have any information about the employment schemes.
- In Rupal village, no work related to the Employment Guarantee Scheme has been done, though Rs 25000 has been approved.
- Within the Fatehpura Gram Panchayat jurisdiction, no one has received employment through the Employment Guarantee Scheme, nor has anyone even made an appeal for the same. We made an appeal for their livelihood and raised awareness within the villagers.
The Employment Guarantee Act has been much lauded and discussed for its attempt to provide labour to the people who need to most benefit from a working wage. Many studies have been done on its efficacy and the results have been mixed – NREGA has worked well in some states and just become a nest of corruption and bureaucracy in others. It is only too obvious where on the spectrum Gujarat lies.
