North East MGNREGA Employees' Association to stage dharna across North East states

KOHIMA: Around 12,500 employees under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in the North East will stage a dharna in all sister states of the region on July 15.

The agitation has been called to highlight the problems faced by MGNREGA employees, North East MGNREGA Employees' Association (NEMEA) general secretary Kukhil Baruah said here today.

"The employees of MGNREGA are being treated like orphans by both central and state governments," he said.

He said the state government refused to look into the welfare of the employees citing that the MGNREGA employees were central government employees, while on the other hand the central government stated they were recruited for the job by the respective state governments.

The Association had a three-point charter of demand, which included regularisation of their services, creation of separate department of MGNREGA and proper structuring of the employees, Baruah said.

Till the three demands were fulfilled, the Association has sought for clearing of salaries of the MGNREGA employees, which has been pending for several months in most of the states of the North East Region.

Pointing out that the salary structure of MGNREGA employees varied from state to state, Baruah said since the nature of job of the employees under MGNREGA throughout the country was same, the salary structure should also be uniform and without any discrimination against any of the state.