NREGA work seekers say tattered job cards not renewed

BARAN: People of Kishanganj and Shahbad blocks of this tribe-dominated district in Rajasthan complained that they were having problems applying for jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as their job cards were old and tattered. They were issued these cards in 2008-2009, and many of these are filled up. Additional pages are pasted to them, but they are hard to maintain.
A survey was conducted recently in the district, and it was found that there were over 38,000 people with job cards in Kishanganj and over 27,000 in Shahbad. Development officer Dhanshyam Sharma of Kishanganj attempted to explain the situation by saying that job cards are renewed from time to time; those who finish all the pages of their card are given additional sheets by the panchayat. However, many workers showed cards that were in poor shape.
In Shahbad, development officer Sudhir Pathak said 1,000 fresh job cards had recently been received by the panchayat, and these were being distributed.