5 lakh ex gratia to kin of 10 deceased MGNREGA workers

Narayanpet: The State government finally relented to the demands of the Tileru villagers and announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh, land, double bedroom houses, employment and education to the children to each of the 10 MGNREGA deceased families, on Firday.

Announcing the relief to the bereaved families, District Collector of Narayanpet S Venkat Rao said, "The government has decided to compensate the bereaved families and announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the bereaved families who lost their loved ones during an unfortunate incident in Tileru. Apart from Rs 5 lakh, the government is also ready to give land, double bedroom houses and residential education to the children of the deceased persons," said Venkat Rao.

Earlier, the relatives of the deceased families, the villagers supported by members of All India Trade Union Congress had continuously held protests and blocked the Mahbubnagar-Raichur highway demanding an ex gratia of Rs 25 lakhs, 3 acres of land, double bedroom houses, job to one person in each family and residential education to the children of the deceased families.

After continuous protest by the villagers who blocked the NH 167 for more than 3 hours and pressure from various quarters the state government had finally relented and conceded to their demands. "In fact, the government should have immediately announced the ex gratia as soon as the deaths were reported. As no one from the government was responding, the villagers were forced to take up the agitation and had to fight against the government.

They had even boycotted the elections aggrieved over the government's delayed attitude. Though late, but the government took a good decision to announce the ex-gratia, land, double bedroom houses, job and education to the children of the deceased families. In fact it is the victory for the villagers as they had put the pressure on to the government and finally it relented," said Kondanna, AITUC president of Mahbubangar district.