Chiefs of hill villages unanimously decided to support Manipur Panchayat Parishad’s stir and impose intense forms of agitation including highway bandh from February 9 if the state Government failed to release the pending amount of Rs 113.87 crore meant for payment of wages of the MGNREGA jobs sanctioned by the Centre on or before February
TFM Kangpokpi Representative
The hill districts in the state may witness intense form of agitations, including highway bandh ahead of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly Election 2022 as chiefs of hill villages decided to support Manipur Panchayat Parishad’s stir over non-release of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) pending fund by the state government.
Chiefs of villages of Kangpokpi district held a crucial meeting on Thursday at the district headquarters in the presence of Manipur Panchayat Parishad members over the non-release of MGNREGA pending fund and after a threadbare discussion they have unanimously resolved to support the agitations spearheaded by the Manipur Panchayat Parishad.
Addressing the media after the meeting, Laxmi Khatiwoda, Vice President, Champhai Block Chiefs/Chairmen Association, on behalf of the villages’ chiefs, said that they have deliberated minutely over the non-release of MGNREGA pending fund by the state Government during the meeting and ultimately decided to support and endorsed the Manipur Panchayat Parishad’s stir and movement over the issue.
He stressed that they have also unanimously decided to impose intense form of agitations including highway bandh from February 9 if the state Government failed to release the pending amount of Rs 113.87 crore meant for payment of wages of the MGNREGA jobs sanctioned by the Centre on or before February 8.
He also maintained that the Centre Government had already sanctioned Rs.333,08,74,000/- on August 25, 2021 to the Manipur government as Central assistance for implementation of the MGNREGA for the financial year 2021-22 and directed the state Government to transfer these funds along with the State share to the State Employment Guarantee Fund for programme implementation within three days positively from the date of receipt of the funds.
However, the state government had released Rs 87 crore only against sanctioned amount by the Centre in August last year while keeping on hold Rs 113.87 crore meant for payment of wages of the MGNREGA, he added.
He said that we are demanding the release of all the funds sanctioned by the Centre as the state government has no reason to delay in releasing the funds.
He continued that if the state government remained adamant towards their demand and failed to release the funds, they will go ahead with their unanimous decision to intensified protest.
The Manipur Panchayat Parishad and the elected Panchayati Raj Institutions functionaries across the six valley districts of Manipur, including Jiribam district had already resorted to various form of agitations against the non-release of funds for MGNREGA and other schemes being implemented through the PRIs.
After they had boycotted the Republic Day celebrations, they also imposed a 38-hour bandh in the panchayat covered areas of the six districts on January 27 and which ended on January 28.