"Mukhiya's men are telling us to collect the wages from her house. They are telling us that money will not be deposited in the bank as it is a long and difficult process," said Devnath Ram, a daily-wager.

Ram is among the labourers who have been issued biometric ATM cards by Central Bank of India. On March 12, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and others clapped as a thousand-rupee note flushed out of the machine after it verified Ram's thumb impression. After that, however, the bank took away the money from Ram as it was only for the show.

"Since then, I have been waiting to use the machine again, but the Mukhiya doesn't let us," Ram said.

The woman is question, Renu Devi, remains indoors while her husband calls the shots on her behalf. He told The Indian Express that the labourers waned the money in cash. "They are very poor. They want money everyday. So I am paying them in cash," he said.

But when told that many of the workers wanted the money deposited into their accounts, he said it would be difficult for him to do so since not all of them have an account.

Vaishali block development officer (BDO), Amitabh Singh, claimed that everything would be in place in a month or two. "Once the computer here becomes functional, we will make online transfer of the wages directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries," he said.

But when told that the wages could be deposited through cheques in the meantime, Sinha said he would enquire why the Mukhiya was not doing so.