No money, no land, yet 30% Manjhi villagers listed APL

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Due to old age, Kesar cannot even work now. He mocks at himself for being put on APL list.

Kesar is not the only one. Around 30 per cent of the 50-odd households of Amaitha that falls under Wazirganj police station have been listed APL. Around 25 youths from Amaitha work in Chennai and Ludhiana to support their families. All Manjhi families depend either on share cropping or daily waging. Damyanti Devi said: “A woman gets three kg rice and a man five kg rice as wages in and around our village. How can we be put under the APL category?”

There are no pucca houses in the Manjhi tola. Though villagers have heard of the three decimal land scheme for Mahadalits to raise a house, no official has surveyed them. The scheme was launched in 2008-09.

Many villagers haven’t even heard of Mahadalit schemes such as skill development training, approach road to village and free distribution of radio sets.

A Fatehpur block official said he had no specific information about the implementation of Mahadalit schemes in Amaitha.

Manjhi families in the village, however, appear politically conscious. The villagers said though they had grudge against their “own man” and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi for not coming to Amaitha after twin murders over an alleged affair, they would still support him, and not Nitish.

Biru Manjhi said: “Nitish has hurt us. We had at least a sense of pride with Manjhi in the CM chair. Nitish has treated us as his political constituency only. We will go with Manjhi in coming polls.” Other villagers echoed similar views.