Friday, July 04, 2008

NREGS job cards distributed at Saikhul

By : A Staff Reporter

IMPHAL, Jul 3: Saikhul Assembly constituency MLA, Doukhongmang Khongsai today while distributing job cards to 75 villagers of Mongneljang village that the flagship programme NREGS is a promising programme for income generation for the people living below the poverty line.

The job cards distribution to the villagers of the Mongneljang village of Saikhul block of Senapati district was held at the community hall of the village with the local MLA as chief guest.

With the scheme for improvement of the inter village road, IVR taken up under NREGS in the village which is located only around 27 kilometers from Imphal, the villagers expressed gratitude to the local MLA for his effort.

Doukhongmang, speaking to the villagers recounted that the NREGS programme was a flagship programme of the Central government targeting to eliminate poverty all over the country by 2020.

The scheme is not only for development but also a means for income generation for the people living under the poverty line, he said.

He also appealed to the villagers to work sincerely and obtain the benefits of the scheme.

With the construction of drainage on the IVR under the programme, the inconvenience caused by overflow of water on the road during the rainy season would be solved, he said.

He also distributed job cards to 75 villagers.

The function was attended by T Manihar, SDO, Saikhul as guest of honour who said that for the construction of the IVR in the village, the authorities had already sanctioned Rs. 92,522.



Tamenglong hit by severe food scarcity
By : Daniel Kamei/IFP 7/4/2008 1:39:00 AM

TAMENGLONG, Jul 3: With the outbreak of bamboo flowering and rodent menace in the whole of Tamenglong district the area is now facing acute food scarcity. There are no rice supplies in store at the private shops and also with the food and civil supplies authorities in the district.

The shop owners while interacting with this correspondent said that they had been searching for rice stocks at the state capital Imphal since the last two weeks, but to their great disappointment they could find only 40 bags and that too at high costs.

The shop owners went on to say that prices of all goods and commodities had gone up due to the recent price rise at Imphal. Besides, bringing in supplies through Silchar or Jiribam was not possible as the bridges between Kaiphundai and Jiribam were carried away by the recent flood waters. “Our loaded trucks are stranded along the NH-53 due to incomplete construction of the new bridges over the river,” said one shopkeeper.

Upon further enquiry regarding the scarcity of food grains at the shops, the shop owners maintained that this could be due to heavy taxation from the underground groups based in the valley areas. However, they did not know the reason behind the scarcity of rice in Imphal.
It is a fact that the poor cultivators in the villages suffer during the monsoon months of June, July and the first part of August. The poor farmers had some reason to smile with the arrival of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, NREGS, in the district. However, the district administration had not been able to pay the wages of job card holders for the remaining 14 days of 2007. Also, no work has been taken up under the scheme for 2008.
Meanwhile, the arrival of locust threat has hit the poor cultivators in the whole district of Tamenglong. While talking to this correspondent, Pou Samuel, secretary, Namkaoluang Village Authority and Longmai village said that the locusts had started attacking paddy and maize plants. “They also perch on the standing crops in their thousands and hop from one plant to the other causing destruction of the crops in the process. Their number has been increasing tremendously over the last one month,” he said.
The entire population of the district subsists on jhum cultivation and the phenomenal rise of insect population means a famine is underway. The district administration, on the other hand, has not taken any preventive measures against the invasion of insects. However, an official source said that upon receiving complaints from four villages in Nungba, Tousem and Tamei block, the district agriculture officers along with their staff had gone to Imphal to submit the findings.

THE SANGAI EXPRESS

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