Ranchi, Sept. 16: A central team constituted by Union rural development ministry wrote to chief minister Arjun Munda yesterday, urging him to offer jobs to the kin of slain MGNREGS activist Niyamat Ansari, the second such letter following the one sent by Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh dated September 1.
Reminding Munda that a similar letter had been sent to him by the Union rural development minister, the team urged Munda to give an ex gratia sum of Rs 2 lakh immediately to the family facing acute poverty after Niyamat’s murder in March this year.
“At least eight persons were economically dependent on Niyamat — his parents, wife and three children, widowed sister and her daughter. Unless they receive adequate compensation, they are condemned to destitution,” the letter said.
The central team, in the state yesterday, met rural development department officials and district deputy commissioners to assess problems within the rural job scheme in the state. The members included National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy, who headed the team of Lalit Mathur, K.B. Saxena and M.D. Asthana, all former IAS officers, and former advisor to Jharkhand governor Wilfred Lakra.
The Union rural development minister had written to Munda to draw the latter’s attention on the issue of compensation for Niyamat’s kin. He also asked Munda to give jobs to Niyamat’s wife Nooresha and sister Sayeeda Khatun, with an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh.
“This is a human tragedy which needs a human solution,” Ramesh had written.
The murder of MGNREGS activist-cum-whistleblower Niyamat Ansari had created a furore across Jharkhand. NGOs had pointed to the plausibility of a nexus between corrupt rural middlemen and rebels. The UPA-led Centre — MGNREGS is its flagship public welfare scheme — had taken the issue very seriously.
Union rural development secretary B.K. Sinha went to Manika and met the bereaved family on March 12.
A central committee came to Ranchi on a fact-finding mission on March 18. The Centre also asked the state government to start a CBI probe, which begun on July 9. But, the “human solution” proved elusive.
