Bujji Babu, Anakapalli (Visakha District)

·         from April 2008: worked on awareness on NREGA and RTI

·         detected a major problem that official muster rolls were not being used. We got the notebook system removed, so that now the lower officials are using official muster rolls.

Challenges are that the Panchayithi level Representatives like Sarpanch , MPTC (Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency), ZPTC (Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency) and lower government officers and local political leaders are promoting fear in the villages. Three of our workers left and had to be replaced due to political pressure in these villages.

Balu (G. Srinu) Buchayyapeta, (Co-ordinator for Three Mandals) (Visakha district)

Team Filed 1500 job applications in 3 mandals

Village families were trained to read pay orders and quickly identify errors. It is necessary because while they are being paid they have very little time to understand and report a discrepancy. The following amounts were released after our complaints and intervention

Kandipedu village: Rs. 8,000
Karakandi: Rs. 60,000
Grunalpindi: Rs. 12.000
P. Bhimavaram: Rs. 36, 000

In these three mandals, Balu coordinated cultural programs (Kala Jatha) in 60 villages. The skit depicts villagers becoming aware of NREGA, the application process, their struggle in submitting forms, getting receipts, getting work or unemployment benefits, demanding equal wages for men and women, and getting paid.

An interesting result of the cultural program comes out in this story from Sajipalli village:  In Sajipalli village, all of the people had stopped working on NREGA, saying that women should not be paid equal wages and men should be paid more. After they saw the cultural program (the street play takes up the issue of why women should be paid equal wage), they started working again.

Another interesting problem is that in Janavaram village, of Chodavaram Mandal, a proposal for a 2.5 km long and 2.5 m wide canal was sanctioned with a budget of Rs. 19,500. However the work done was 1875 person-days at Rs. 80/day (total Rs. 1.5L). Since the proposal was for Rs. 19,500, people have not been paid. Clearly the proposed amount was incorrect and needs to be revised.

In 5 mandals of Visakha district, coordinated by two people including Balu, Wall writings were done in 65 villages.  3 VRPs and 1 technical assistant were suspended after our complaints. One APO was transferred.

In P. Bhimavaram village of  Buchayapeta mandal, there were significant differences between payment orders and what was actually given. People complained.  The enquiry was conducted without giving notice to us and we brought this to the notice of the Commissioner.

In Garnikam village and Ravikamatham mandals, women's groups are now distributing the payments in the presence of our worker.

In some villages pay slips given to people say Rs. 31 / day. However in general they have got Rs. 80 / day.

Jeep

As per the proposal, Ajay Kumar has purchased a jeep to help carry out this work as well as continue the work on tribal & land issues that AID has supported.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge support from Tempe, Berkeley, College Park & Columbus chapters of Association for India’s Development (AID) and through AID’s Anti-Corruption Fund / EB.

Report prepared by Ravi & Aravinda
In consultation with Upadhi Hakkula (NREGA) Sadhana team members