Krushna Uthansingh, a 68-year-old tribal from Mandipanka village, has not had enough work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to take care of his ailing wife and two grown-up daughters.

He fears the worst for his family, as they sometimes resort to eating mango kernels due to the scarcity of food at their home.

The death of two tribal women at Mandipanka village under Daringbadi block in Kandhamal district after eating mango kernels has already stoked fear in the minds of the tribals. They had to eat mango kernels as they had been left with little rice in their houses and the 5kg rice per head per month under the National Food Security Act failed to reach them in time.

Faced with criticism, the state government has asked officials to provide work to people under MGNREGA as soon as possible.

Krushna told The Telegraph: “For the last six months, there has been no work under MGNREGA and other works like planting trees under the forest department. So it is difficult to manage life with the little money we have.”

Krushna is father to four daughters. Three of them are married and another one is a sickle cell anemia patient. As there was no MGNREGA work, two of Krushna’s daughters left for Goa with their husbands ten months back. They work as migrant labourers, but hardly send him any money.

Krushna said: “My differently-abled daughter’s husband deserted her as there was a constant fight between them over food. After failing to get work, the husband failed to take care of her and their eight-month-old baby. He used to beat them. Unable to bear her pain, I brought her to my house one-and-a-half-month back. There is no work here and taking care of all of them with a such short supply of rice is quite tough.”

He added: “I get an old age pension of ₹1,000, and my differently-abled daughter gets a pension of ₹1,000. Is it possible to run a household this way with such an amount?”

Kumbar Majhi, 58, whose daughter Runi Majhi died after eating mango kernels, said: “We had raised the issue of no work under MGNREGA when the revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) visited our village on Wednesday to inquire about our condition. We apprised her of how we are facing a shortage of work and no rice.”

Majhi said: “The RDC has directed the administration to start the road work in our village under MGNREGA as soon as possible.”

Anil Majhi, 32, whose wife died eating mango kernel, said: “As I did not find any work under the MGNREGA scheme, I failed to provide food for my family. 5kg rice per person supplied by the government is inadequate. The rice reached our village only after the mango kernel deaths were reported.”

Block Development Officer, Daringbadi, Pritiranjan Rath told this newspaper: “I joined the block only last week. We have started work under the MGNREGA. I have decided to visit that village once every week and bring a change.”

However, locals claimed that the work under MGNREGA started only three days back

The Mohan Majhi government has asked collectors of 11 vulnerable districts to implement the MGNREGA guaranteeing 200 to 300 work days annually.