TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2025
Kacharigaon (Phevima) council refuses to pay 30% wage cut demand by RD department
Published on Jun 7, 2025
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- DIMAPUR — The Kacharigaon (Phevima) Village Council has resolved that for the 2024–25 financial year, it will not return the 30% wage component demanded by the Rural Development Department under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The resolution has been submitted to the department concerned.
Kacharigaon (Phevima) Village Council chairman Vitho Zao (centre) addresses a press conference in Dimapur on Saturday.
- Addressing a press conference at the village’s panchayat hall on Saturday, council chairman Vitho Zao alleged that the Rural Development Department has been demanding a 30% cut from the wage component and 50% from the material component, both of which are part of MGNREGA’s fund disbursement.
- Zao informed that the decision to resist these deductions was taken during a general meeting of the village held on May 31. He explained that from 2024–2025 onwards, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has started crediting the wage component directly into the bank accounts of job card holders.
- Despite this direct transfer, the department has been instructing the village council to collect 30% of the amount from each beneficiary and return it to the department, he said.
- Questioning the practicality of this demand, Zao pointed out that the daily wage under MGNREGA is only INR 234, and deducting 30% from that would leave beneficiaries with just over INR 160—a meagre amount for hard labour. It is unacceptable to ask poor villagers to give up their limited earning, he said.
- He also referred to the village audit report of 2023–2024, which revealed that a significant portion of the material component was returned to the department. This sparked discontent among the villagers, who began accusing the Village Development Board (VDB) secretary, council chairman, gaon buras, and other office bearers of siphoning the funds.
- Zao stated that these suspicions have been aggravated by the department’s failure to provide official receipts for returned amounts. "When there is no documentation, villagers naturally hold us accountable,” he said.
- Further complicating matters, Zao said the material component under MGNREGA is often released 10 months to a year after work begins, even though it is essential for project execution. The department’s alleged solution, he claimed, is to instruct villages to divert funds from the wage component to purchase materials upfront.
- This practice, he said, is being followed across the entire state of Nagaland.
- Declaring their stand, Zao reiterated that the council will neither return the 30% wage cut nor the 50% deduction from the material component. He appealed to the state government to stop taking what rightfully belongs to the villagers and urged other villages to rise in solidarity and resist this form of blackmail.
- He alleged that the department routinely withholds future project work from villages that do not comply with these deductions, a practice that has persisted since the inception of MGNREGA in the state.
- When questioned why an FIR had not been filed, Zao said the issue has emerged from a well-established system of corruption. He explained that VDB secretaries are forced to sign documents falsely certifying that no deductions were made, which allows the department to show no wrongdoing on their part.
- He added that the money transfers are not made through cheque or RTGS, but in cash, and the department does not issue any receipts for these payments.
- According to him, the village returned an amount of INR 6,78,255 from the material component to the department in 2023–2024.
- VDB Secretary Kevishel Viswensto, who was also present, stated that Nagaland has about 1,285 villages and 74 blocks, yet theirs is the only village publicly raising this issue.
Nagaland Districts
