ANDHRA PRADESH

Agr Workers To Campaign On Employment Guarantee Act

M Venugopala Rao

B V Raghavulu addressing the convention

THE state-level convention on the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, organised by Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Workers’ Union on October 24 at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Hyderabad, decided to take up campaign and plan of action in a phased manner for effective implementation of the act.  It decided to organise conventions in the districts from the November 1 to the 10, and in the mandals from the November 10 to 30. The convention in a resolution decided to take up campaign on the issue through posters, pamphlets and forms of arts from the December 1 to 15, and to hold village meetings during the same period.  In the month of January 2006, it would take up the task of submission of applications by beneficiaries for work under the act.

B Venkat, general secretary of the union, introduced the resolution. The convention demanded the state government to take all necessary steps to prevent corruption in the implementation of the act. It demanded the government to form all-party committees from the state-level to the village-level and entrust the task of formulating guidelines for implementation of the act and supervision to these committees.  In the selection of works, first priority should be given to the residential areas of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and weaker sections. Payment of wage to the beneficiaries should be made through money order. Suitable works for women, physically handicapped and old age people should also be selected. Repairs to pucca houses, development of house sites, self-employment schemes should be included in the works. In addition to the eight districts already selected for implementation of the act in the state, the districts of Medak, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Chittoor, Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram, Visakhapatnam and Prakasam should be included in the first phase of implementation. Special machinery for implementation should be formed at district, mandal and village levels. Training on the programme should be provided to the educated women, SCs, STs and bakcward class people in order to involve them in the campaign and implementation of the act. The government should undertake wide-ranging campaign by publishing pamphlets and posters and holding mandal-level conventions and village meetings.

P Somayya, vice president of the union, presided over the convention. Leaders from different mass organisations and agricultural workers and union activists from selected districts participated in the convention. Leaders who addressed the convention stated that the agricultural workers themselves have the responsibility and the right to get the act implemented effectively. For this they stressed the need to enlighten them through movements and struggles.      Paturu Ramayya, president of the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, disputed the claims of the ruling parties in the state and at the centre that poverty has been reduced and that living conditions have been improved, contending that it was not possible when the government reduced allocation of funds for agriculture and rural development. Secondly, due to increased mechanisation of agriculture, man-days and wages have been reduced further. Thirdly, migration of the workers in search of work is taking place abnormally. Due to miserable living conditions of the rural poor, discontentment has been growing among them, explained Ramayya. He made it clear that the act was not an outcome of the mercy of the ruling classes, but a result of the pressure brought on the central government by the Left parties for implementation of the common minimum programme of the United Progressive Alliance. Reminding that the agricultural workers’ union and the Left parties have been agitating for the act over the years, Ramayya said that the act was a weapon in the hands of the agricultural workers and the rural poor. He felt that the act was a turning point in the history of the union.

B V Raghavulu, state secretary and Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), stated that the Congress party enacted this legislation only because of its dependence on the Left parties for the survival of its government at the centre. Though the Congress party passed the bill intended for implementation of land reforms in the past, it did not implement the same. Raghavulu cautioned that the ruling classes had brought about the employment guarantee act unwillingly and as such they would not show interest in its implementation. Reminding that the government was claiming that nearly a sum of Rs 25,000 crore was required for implementation of the act, Raghavulu suggested that the amount could be mobilised even if foodgrains in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India was saved from rats or even by reducing the subsidy being given on export of foodgrains. Noting that the Congress party was not giving any commitment for effective implementation of the act, Raghavulu called for united struggles for proper implementation of the act for the benefit of the rural poor.

K Raju, principal secretary, department of rural development, government of Andhra Pradesh, said it was a revolutionary act in the country. He said that the act would be published in the gazette shortly and implemented from the middle of February next. Raju explained that the act provides food security to the workers to resist social oppression. Though the act ensures payment of wage of not less than Rs 60 per day, the state government wants to ensure payment of wage as per the SSR rates of at least Rs 80 per day, he said. Raju advised the participants to take serious steps to create awareness among the agricultural workers and the poor for proper implementation of the programme.

B Tulasidas, president of A P Rythu Sangham, Hymavathi, state vice president of AIDWA, Ram Naik, secretary of A.P. Girijana Sangham, G Ramulu, president of Kula Vivaksha Porata Samithi, P V Srinivas, state secretary of DYFI, Balakrishna of Vruttidarula Sangham and Ajay Kumar, state secretary of CITU, participated in the convention.