Muzaffarpur: Thousands of MNREGA workers have hit streets of Muzaffarpur against continuous assault by local administration against Sanjay Sahni, (the founder of Samaj Parivartan Shakti Sangathan) and his colleagues who are thriving for rights of workers.
There was a huge rally from Jubah Sahni park to Muzaffarpur District Collectorate.
This protest was done with an aim to demand the withdrawal of manufactured intimidation by the local elite, goons and police against the continuous struggle put up by the MNREGA workers under the banner of SPSS. In addition to this, many bogus FIRs were registered against members of the Sangathan.
Sanjay Sahni: Single man behind mobilising thousands of MNREGA workers in Bihar
The recent among them was one filed on 6th September 2018 which claimed- SPSS three members (Sanjay Sahni, Mandeshri Devi and Nilam Devi) forcibly took away the daughter in law of the complainant to do NREGA work, against wish of her husband which allegedly led his son to commit suicide.
But the truth was, on that day, the founder of SPSS Sanjay Sahni was with Jean Dreze (noted Development Economist) in a meeting at Ranchi when this incident happened in Muzaffarpur.
After two days, Mandeshri Devi was detained by the police. Against this brutality, On 12th September 2018 Jean Dreze along with Aruna Roy (Founder of Mzadoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan), Nikhil Dey (Co-founder of Mzadoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan) and Rajendran Narayanan (Asst. Professor Azim Premji University) wrote to the Director General of Police (DGP) complaining about fabricating false case against members of SPSS.
In conversation with Newsd, Jean Dreze, Nikhil Dey and Rajendran Narayanan stated- We have many demands which are very genuine and among them few of them include:
- To put an immediate end to continuous intimidation and harassment of members of MNREGA watch with a fair and time bound probe against allegation leveled against Sanjay Sahni and other members of SPSS.
- Immediately implement Para 10 of Standard Operating Procedure for operationalizing provision of Section 27(2) of MNREGA which clearly mandates, the State Government to “ensure safety to enquiry officer/complainant/whistle blower in the states”..
- Ensure setting up of camps in Gram panchayat of Muzaffarpur District to accept work application form and timely payment of wages within 15 days.
In this context, a letter detailing the whole incident was submitted to the District Collector of Muzaffarpur by the members of SPSS joined by Jean Dreze, Nikhil Dey and Rajendran Narayanan.
