No pay for months, Karnataka NREGA contract staff on protest leave
MYSURU: Nearly 4,000 contractual staff with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) scheme have not been paid for the last five to seven months.
Though the staff, who are responsible for creating employment in rural areas under the programme, have approached top officials and appealed for the payment of pending salaries, nothing has been done.
The staff that have not been paid include engineers, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) workers and field staff.
With no sign of salaries, they have resorted to a protest and applied for mass casual leave, boycotting work. They have also staged demonstrations in front of zilla panchayat offices across the state. The tragic story is the same even in Mysuru, the home district of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
These coordinators are crucial in ensuring that the rural folk get 100 days of employment per year under the scheme.
Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge has written to Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for urgent intervention for the immediate release of pending wages, material and administrative funds to ensure livelihoods of lakhs of scheme beneficiaries and maintenance of administrative efficiency.
The lack of funds has affected routine operations, supervision and ground-level implementation.
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Deccan Herald
an hour ago
- Deccan Herald
Stampede politics, surrender barb, and a billionaire break-up!
Hello Readers! The week that went by was a tumultuous one in political circles. A victory parade turned into tragedy with political mudslinging taking precedence thereafter, a 'surrender-' barb opened up a Pandora's box while a Bharat Mata picture in Kerala's Raj Bhavan ruffled a few feathers. The week also saw the break-up of two-most influential personalities in the world of business and trade. Here's a quick recap of the week's action in DH Political Theatre.. Stampede did not take much time for ecstasy to turn into agony as Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) triumph and the resultant celebrations turned haywire last week with 11 lives lost due to a stampede near the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. But what followed after the stampede was sheer innuendo and political mudslinging which would put everyone into shame. While BJP, which is the principal opposition party in Karnataka, flayed the ruling Congress for giving the nod to victory celebrations at such a short notice despite being warned against the same by the police, the ruling party allowed the situation to go from bad to worse by suspending top police BJP flayed the Congress for turning the event into a virtual 'photoshoot' with most of their barbs aimed at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar. Videos and photos showing family members of Congress leaders posing with RCB cricketers on the grand steps of the Vidhana Soudha added more fuel to the fire. Regional imbalance questions also popped up as to whether the government would have accorded a similar reception to a Ranji-Trophy-winning state team instead of arranging a grand welcome with pomp and splendor for a city-based franchise club , that too in front of the Vidhana Soudha. Though the government did do some knee-jerk action by ordering a CID probe and detaining four people, including RCB's marketing manager, the damage is beyond control. The suspension of top police officials including the city pole commissioner who netizens claim have been made a scapegoat, has drawn flak from many circles. As cricket fans became cannon fodder, questions like what was the need to organise an event at such a short notice despite police warning and measures about better crowd-control management will remain open to debate for far across the Vindhyas, a political slugfest broke out between the ruling BJP and opposition Congress after Rahul Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi 'surrendered' following a call from US President Donald Trump during the India-Pakistan military conflict."A call came from Trump and Narendra ji immediately surrendered - history is a witness, this is the character of BJP-RSS, they always bow down," Rahul posted on taking potshots at the PM, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also recalled the bravery of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971 when she held her fort despite the US sending its Seventh Fleet. The Raebareli MP also went on say that India, under Indira Gandhi's astute leadership, held on its conviction and did not yield to US pressure at that was quick to pounce upon the 'surrender barb' and flayed Rahul saying his comments were an insult to the armed forces. While alleging that Rahul's comments undermined the success of Operation Sindoor, it also said that it makes one suspect if he is a "paid agent" of China and Pakistan. The saffron party also went on to add that it was the Nehru-Gandhi family which surrendered Indian interests. Governor vs since Arif Mohammed Khan was shunted out of Kerala Raj Bhavan, the equation between the state government and the governor had been reasonably good. But it looks as though the face off between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government and the Governor is set to resume. In a latest twist, a political row erupted after Kerala's agriculture minister P Prasad boycotted a sapling plantation function at the governor's house on World Environment Day, apparently for using a photo of Bharat Mata carrying a saffron flag. The minister's contention was that gubernatorial offices should not be used as a platform to promote religious causes, in an apparent reference to the portrait, which is mostly used in RSS 'shakhas'.Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar refused to budge though and defending it by saying that the picture of Bharat Mata could not be removed as 'we can't not do away with the ideals for which we're living'. Though the function was moved out from the central hall of Raj Bhavan to the Durbar Hall inside the state secretariat, the damage had been done by that time as the LDF government stuck to its stand of boycotting the function unless the portrait was removed. The latest row happened close on the heels of another controversy over a programme of RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy on 'Operation Sindoor' being held at the Raj Bhavan, with both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Opposition parties chiding Arlekar for what they called attempts to 'saffronise' the Raj Bhavan. It looks as though there is no end in sight to the Governor vs Govt face off in the left-ruled Kerala. Out of context!.'Misinterpreted', 'taken out of context' --- these are certain euphemisms that politicians usually use when they are in trouble after making controversial comments. It looks as though Tamil film icon Kamal Haasan, who nurtures political ambitions, is the latest to follow the trend. The 'Ulaganayagan' is in the eye of a storm following his comments that Kannada was born out of Tamil during an event to promote his film Thug Life, which he made in the presence of Kannada star Shiva Rajkumar. He faced heavy backlash from all quarters, with even Karnataka High Court pulling up the 70-year-old and asking him to apologise. But Kamal remained defiant and said that though there was no dispute or debate over the rich legacy of Kannada language, he would not apologise as demanded by Kannada outfits. But to calm down the issue, Haasan came up with a 'classic' justification, saying that his comments on Tamil and Kannada while talking about his association with thespian Dr Rajkumar's family have been 'misunderstood' and 'taken out of context.''It pains me that my statement at the Thug Life audio launch spoken out of gent affection for the legendary Dr Rajkumar's family, especially Shiva Rajkumar been misunderstood and taken out of context. My words were intended only convey that we are all one and from the same family and not to diminish Kannada any way,' Kamal said, in a belated attempt to douse the fire. After all, actors too can turn into good politicians, right?Billionaire break-up!.Across the globe, the week ended on high drama with dirty linen being washed in public by US President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The public feud between the two most influential figures in the United States reached a crescendo, with Trump suggesting that he may terminate US government contracts and subsidies given to Musk's companies after the latter blasted Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' as fiscally reckless and a "disgusting abomination."When Trump met privately with White House officials, there was little to suggest that the US president was close to a public spat with Musk, the billionaire businessman who helped him win a second term in office. But things took a diabolic twist as Trump called Musk volatile and the latter retaliated through a barrage of posts on his own social media platform 'X'.As the public feud between the two billionaires escalates over the tax and spending bill, the Musk-Trump break-up also sent Tesla's stock price plunging while keyboard warriors went berserk with a wave of memes and viral one-liners across the world of concludes the (political) entertainment for this week folks! We will be back next week with more. Till then, stay tuned to Stage Left,DH Newsletters Team
Hans India
3 hours ago
- Hans India
Karnataka: State still struggles to curb child marriages, teenage pregnancies
Bengaluru: Despite being a state that has made rapid strides in education, technology, and social awareness, Karnataka continues to grapple with the serious social issues of child marriage and teenage pregnancies. Despite government-led awareness campaigns and strict enforcement of laws, the number of such cases continues to rise, raising alarm among policymakers and citizens alike. In the 2024–25 period alone, Karnataka reported 700 instances of child marriage. According to the Women and Child Development Department, out of 3,049 complaints received related to child marriage, officials managed to prevent 2,349. However, the fact that 700 marriages still took place despite these efforts has emerged as a significant concern for the state administration. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, during a recent two-day meeting with Deputy Commissioners and Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officers, expressed serious concern over the issue and issued strict directives to curb such practices. District-wise data reveals the spread of the issue across Karnataka. Shivamogga reported the highest number of child marriages at 79, followed closely by Belagavi with 78, which is notably the home district of Women and Child Development Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar. Other districts with a high number of reported child marriages include Chitradurga with 74, Bagalkote and Mysuru with 60 each, Mandya with 57, and Haveri with 42. Mysuru, the Chief Minister's home district, not only recorded a high number of actual cases but also saw the highest number of complaints, at 284. Authorities managed to prevent 224 of those marriages. Similarly, Mandya had 180 complaints, of which 129 were prevented. In Bengaluru Urban, out of 83 complaints, 53 marriages were stopped but 30 still took place. Districts such as Chikkaballapur, Vijayanagara, Ballari, and Chikkamagaluru each reported 11 cases. Koppal received 168 complaints, out of which 161 marriages were stopped, while 7 went ahead. Relatively fewer cases were reported in Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu, and Udupi, with 7, 7, and 6 cases respectively. Over the last four years, from 2021–22 to 2024–25, the state witnessed a total of 2,165 child marriages. The yearly breakdown shows 418 cases in 2021–22, 328 in 2022–23, 719 in 2023–24 (the first year under the current Congress government), and 700 in 2024–25. The sharp spike in the last two years has become a matter of concern, prompting the Chief Minister to sternly question officials during recent reviews. Equally alarming is the number of teenage pregnancies recorded under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. In 2024–25, Karnataka registered 3,489 POCSO cases, of which 685 involved teenage girls who became pregnant. These figures highlight not just sexual violence but the broader social neglect and vulnerability of young girls in the state. Bengaluru Urban reported the highest number of POCSO cases at 343, with 28 teenage pregnancies. Shivamogga followed with 231 cases, including 55 pregnancies. In Belagavi, 179 cases were registered, with 20 teenage pregnancies. Chikkaballapur had 170 cases and 32 pregnancies, while Mandya recorded 160 cases and 8 teenage pregnancies. Despite Karnataka's reputation as a progressive and modern state, these statistics expose the persistence of regressive social practices and highlight the urgent need for stronger enforcement, better education, and community-level engagement to protect the rights and futures of young girls.
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
Siddaramaiah sacks political secretary over Bengaluru stampede: Who is K Govindaraju?
With the Congress government in Karnataka facing the heat following the stampede in Bengaluru on Wednesday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sacked his political secretary K Govindaraju on Friday. The close aide of the CM became the first Cabinet-rank official to be sacked in the aftermath of the stampede that occurred outside the Chinnaswamy stadium during the IPL victory celebrations of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, leaving 11 people dead. Govindaraju, currently an MLC, conceived the idea of a victory parade and celebration at the Vidhana Soudha, the state legislature, despite the Bengaluru City Police denying permission for the event, according to multiple sources in the government and the police. 'He reportedly liaised between the state government, KSCA (Karnataka State Cricket Association) and RCB even though the police denied permission,' a source said, adding that the police, at a certain point, were kept in the dark about the communications happening between the KSCA and the state government. Sources in the Congress alleged that Govindaraju pushed the idea of a large-scale celebration as he aspired to contest the KSCA polls. Labelled the de facto 'sports minister' by a section of state Congress leaders, Govindaraju is viewed as a 'troubleshooter who operates behind the scenes'. In the last two decades, he has always occupied important positions whenever the Congress is at the helm of affairs. He has been president of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia, the Basketball Federation of India, and the Karnataka Olympic Association. Govindaraju has denied all the allegations and told the media on Friday that he was not involved with the RCB and 'never contacted by the KSCA'. Claiming that he was disturbed by the sequence of events, he told The Indian Express, 'It has happened over a minor issue and nothing big. I will speak to you next week.' Hailing from a family of bureaucrats from Kolar, sources said Govindaraju had access to the corridors of power as his elder brother is an IAS officer promoted from the state services. A senior Congress leader credited Govindaraju's 'entreprising behaviour and never-say-no attitude' for his rise in the echelons of power. 'He first came into contact with state Minister K J George and then with (former CM) S M Krishna. He is seen as a man who caters to the needs of powerful politicians,' a leader said. Govindaraju also had a stint in electoral politics when he made his Assembly poll debut from the Shivajinagar seat in 1999. But he lost the election. He continued to remain a part of the state power circles and was elected MLC in 2012. He also served as Siddaramaiah's parliamentary secretary between 2015 and 2018. Seen in Congress circles as the party's 'fundraiser', Govindaraju found himself in the centre of a controversy in 2017 after Income Tax officials recovered a diary from him with details of payments worth Rs 600 crore allegedly made to senior Congress leaders.
