Farmer kills self over NREGS
A farmer in Jharkhand’s poverty-stricken, Maoist-hit Palamu district committed suicide by hanging himself beside a well whose construction under MGNREGS he had been supervising because the bulk of the allocated funds were not being paid even as unpaid labourers were harassing him, officials said on Sunday.
Jaggu Bhuiyan, a scheduled caste farmer in Hotaie village in Panki block, killed himself on Saturday, a day after Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda launched with fanfare a website, www.aapkacm.com, saying it would improve governance by getting the state’s people in direct touch with him through their Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Bhuiyan, 42, had been paid only `20,000 for the well for which `2 lakh was sanctioned under an MGNREGS project, said an official. He had made several rounds to the offices of the Panki BDO and the Palamu deputy commissioner with requests to release the rest of the funds for the half-constructed well. But the authorities reportedly paid no attention to his requests.
“He hanged himself to death because of frustration over NREGS funds with which a well was being built in his village. His son Doman Bhuiyan has lodged an FIR,” said Panki police station officer Jitendra Kumar Azad to this newspaper. “We are looking into the matter, but the village is in the Maoist-affected interiors and it is very difficult
to get details,” he added.
Efforts to contact Palamu deputy commissioner Puja Singhal were fruitless as her telephone operator said repeatedly that she could not speak.
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