Absent labourers give parties cold feet

Statesman News Service

MALDA, May 15: Political leaders in the rural belt are apprehensive ahead of the polls owing to the absence of their committed voters in the rural polls. The reasons: Many migrant labourers,working in different states have not yet come back from work.Though the political leaders had approached them through their relatives, there is no chance of their return before the polls. Both the Congress and the CPI-M leaders are apprehensive about what the poll results would bring for them in absence of their vote banks. They fear that the absence of migrant labourers may be a decisive factor in the polls where the margin between two candidates varies from 2-10 for a seat in gram panchayat level. Observing the situation of this district, political leaders have expressed concern over the failure of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme here. “Nearly 5-6 lakh labourers including women from the district are working in different states due to lack of job in their own district as we have been unable to provide them jobs through the NREGS,” said Mr Goutam Chakraborty, the out going sabhadhipati of Malda Zilla Parishad. Women from Malda’s Barind belt are working as domestic help in different cities of the country.A few of them have returned from Delhi and adjoining areas to cast their votes in rural polls. According to the CPI-M district secretary and the LF convener, many labourers are working out side of the country to get decent wages. “Hundreds of labourers who are working in Delhi, Mumbai and other big cities of different states get decent amount of wages and food than the wages allotted under the NREGS,” claimed Mr Jiban Moitra , the CPI-M district secretary.

Jaipur blast victim

MALDA, May 15: Mrs Meeni Pervin , a resident of Harishchadrapur in Malda left for Jaipur in Rajasthan today to collect the body of her husband , Abdul Manan ( 30 ) killed in the serial blasts on Tuesday. The Malda district magistrate, Mr CR Das said that the district administration did not have official information about the deceased. n sns