Payment to MNREGA workers under the scheme ‘Gaon ne buta aau gaon ne rupiah’
Kondagaon, March 02, 2022/ To ensure ‘Right of Employment’ to the person of every household in the village, the government employs the people under Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) and their wages are paid directly into their accounts through DBT.
There are only 5 bank branches in the Farasgaon area and associated Development Block Headquarters, apart from this, two bank branches are in Dhanora of Keshkal and a bank branch in Benur of Narayanpur district. Due to this, the villagers had to travel long distances to another village far away from home to get their due amount besides facing hassles of waiting in long queues. In such a situation, they had to face a lot of trouble even to get their basic account information, as a result of this they were losing interest to work under MNREGA.
To address the following situation of increase in the number of complaints and losing interest of MNREGA workers even after timely payment has been done in their bank accounts, Collector Pushpendra Kumar Meena instructed the concerned officer to make payment at the workplace itself.
As per the instructions, Zila Panchayat CEO Premprakash Sharma took step to appoint 10 ‘Bank Sakhi’ from Bihan groups as a pilot project. These Bank Sakhi’s started work for 14098 active job cardholders of 44 bankless remote gram panchayat out of 73 Gram Panchayats under Farasgaon development block.
These Bank Sakhi’s includes Karuna, Rukhmani, Dhanmati, Rupeshwari, Khemeshwari, Jayanti, Sharda Jain, Hembati, Pushpa, Savitri. These Bank Sakhi’s are addressed by the villagers as ‘Bank Didi’s’. After the issue of FTO in 44 gram Panchayats by these bank sakhi’s, the information about payment in the gram Panchayat is given to the laborers by the Gram Panchayat secretary or employment assistants. Based on which the wage payment work is done by the Bank Sakhi’s in the Gram Panchayat building keeping in view the convenience of the villagers.
Villagers told that appointment of bank didi’s helping us a lot to get employment and wages payment under MNREGA in our village itself, we don’t need to go to other village and we are excited for this. Earlier, due to being unaware of payment status and banks being away, people’s enthusiasm towards MNREGA had diminished. Now with the arrival of bank didi’s to the village, people themselves are coming out of their homes and joining MNREGA works and contributing to the development of the village along with employment.
In this regard, District CEO Seema Thakur said that along with doing payment transactions for MNREGA workers, Bank Sakhi’s are also giving information about their accounts. This brings a sense of satisfaction to the villagers. A total of Rs. 1,31,34,975 has been distributed through 6080 bank transactions by these 10 Bank Sakhi’s in five months. The selection of educated computer literate women of these self-help groups as ‘Bank Sakhi’s’ has not only employed these women but has also given new hope to the villagers.
In this regard, Zila Panchayat CEO Prem Prakash Sharma said that villages located in remote areas of Farasgaon were affected by Naxals in the past and even mobile connectivity was not available, in such a situation, due to lack of core banking facilities, banks did not have access here.
Initiating this process by District Administration and with the availability of mobile connectivity, Bank Sakhi’s are taking the bank with laptops from door to door. Villagers are getting the fruits of their labor at the impression of a finger due to the availability of banking facilities through Aadhar Based Biometrics and Account transactions and many more people are joining MNREGA.
