Too hot, change NREGA work timing, demand workers in Baran

BARAN: Workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Baran district have said that it’s unbearably hot, so the timings of work should be changed. The unskilled manual workers engaged for various projects say their work sites often have not even trees for shade. At present, they work between 6 am and 2 pm. The workers said that under the Congress government, in the height of summer, work timings at NREGA sites would change to 6 am-10 am.That was ideal, for this time of year, they said, adding that the intense heat and dust storms could leave them sick.
Workers in the tribal dominated Kishanganj and Shahbad said it gets intensely hot these days even by 10 am.
Firoz Khan, a social worker in the district, said, “The workers have little respite from the heat. They often work at sites which are quite bare and even tree cover is not available. The government should be concerned about the plight of these workers who do hard manual labour.”