IMPHAL, March 30: The Guwahati high court, Imphal bench has issued a notice of motion returnable within four weeks in response to the writ petition filed by 14 Job card holders of Naoriya Pakhanglakpa Gram Panchayat for non payment of unemployment allowance despite the fact that the Ombudsman, MGNREGS, Imphal West district had issued an award in this regard.
A statement issued by the Human Right Law Network (HRLN) in this connection said that the writ petition was the first of its kind in Manipur, under the active initiative of the HRLN, in approaching the high court for non payment allowance by the job card holders under the MGNREGA, 2005. It said that under the NREGS Manipur which has been framed by the Government of Manipur under section 4 of the MGNREGA, every job card holders is entitled to get unemployment allowance as and when the authority concerned failed to provide employment within 15 days from the date of submission of application for work by the Job card holders.
It revealed that on April, 18, 2010, fourteen Job card holders of Naoriya Pakhanglakpa Gram Panchayat had submitted their application for work to the authority of Naoriya Pakhanglakpa Gram Panchayat for providing employment under the NREGS, Manipur. However the said job card holders were not provided employment within stipulated period for time and as such they had approached the Panchayat secretary, Naoriya Pakhanglakpa Gram Panchayat on July 15, 2010 by submitting their separate applications for seeking unemployment allowances for their failure to provide employment but all in vain.
It further added that on August 12, 2010 the said job card holders have submitted a joint complaint before the Ombudsman concerned for taking necessary action so as to enable them to get their unemployment allowances. Consequently, on August 26 the ombudsman has disposed of their joint complaint thereby directing the Programme Officer concerned to pay the unemployment allowances to the said job holders. However the authority concerned failed to provide the unemployment allowances despite the award issued by the Ombudsman in this regard, it said.
The respondent of the writ petition are the state of Manipur through the commissioner (Rural Development and Panchayati Raj) to the government of Manipur, the district programme Co-ordinator, Imphal West, the Programme officer, Imphal West-II C.D Block, Wangoi and the Union of India through the secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, GOI, New Delhi, the release added.
