MALDA, Jan. 2: In the wake of allegations that postmasters are reluctant to open accounts for registered labourers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, it has been decided that the postmaster general in Kolkata will hear the allegations on 5 January through a video conference.
District officials across the state will interact with the postmaster general regarding the problems of institutional payment of wages through post office accounts to registered day labourers under NREGA. According to the district nodal officer of NREGA, the principal secretary of panchayat and rural development department, Mr MN Roy, other officials concerned of the department and district officials including the superintendent of the district headquarters will be present at the conference. The decision to hold the video conference was taken after receiving complaints from almost all districts. According to Mr R Mandal, the district nodal officer in Malda, postmasters are reluctant to open accounts for registered labourers for the payment of 100-day job in this district. “The opening of postal accounts is being delayed due to their reluctance,” he added.
According to the block development officials in Malda, many postmasters try to avoid opening postal accounts for labourers; even application forms are not supplied on time.
The district administrative officials finally instructed the block offices to print the postal application forms to meet the apparent shortage. The Bamangola and Habibpur blocks then printed 36,000 and 12,000 postal applications respectively.
Even this could not resolve the issue as, the block development officials alleged, postmasters refused to accept the applications because it was not printed by the postal department. According to Mr Dipak Singha, pradhan of Motiharpur gram panchayat ~ selected as best gram panchayat in the district recently ~ alleged that the local post office was reluctant to pay wages to the labourers without “cut money”.
In Malda, a total of 5,39,000 labourers have received job cards. The district administration has targeted to open at least 1,48,000 bank or post office accounts. At present the district administration has been able to open 26,821 postal accounts and 22,418 bank accounts. n SNS
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