Policemen at a village in Muchia gram panchayat after the probe was ordered. Picture by Surajit Roy

Muchia (Malda). Feb. 18: Malda district magistrate (DM) Chittaranjan Das has ordered a probe to find out why some villagers in the Muchia gram panchayat area have been driven to pulling ploughs on fields to repay their debts to local moneylenders.

In Manoharpur village of the same gram panchayat area at noon today, the BSF allegedly beat up men and women after a group of rustlers trying to smuggle cows into Bangladesh gave them the slip.

The Telegraph today reported how villagers here have stopped keeping cows and bullocks at home for fear of rustlers from Bangladesh. This has made them poorer and forced them to take loans ranging from Rs 3,000-5,000 from moneylenders, who are now making them do the work of bullocks on their fields.

The district administration and the local gram panchayat today traded charges trying to explain the reasons behind the villager’s penury.

“There are two gram panchayats, Muchia and adjacent Sahapur, where the 100-day work scheme has hardly been implemented. Once the Old Malda block development officer files the probe report, we will take action against the panchayat functionaries,” the DM said.

The scheme is supposed to guarantee 100 days of work per year to poor villagers.

The BJP panchayat pradhan of Muchia, Asit Sarkar, put the blame on the government. “Even if we see these men pulling ploughs, we are helpless as their names do not feature in the BPL list,” he said. “Earlier, we had 2,010 BPL families, but after a revision of the rolls last year, the list now shows only 419.”

The pradhan said because of this, the panchayat could spend only 20 per cent of the Rs 3.9 lakh received under the central scheme. The DM said the errors would be corrected after another survey.

About today’s incident in Manoharpur, the commandant of the 123 Battalion of the BSF, Gopal Singh, said no villager was beaten up. “We detained a few because of their links with cattle-smugglers.”