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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Ensure all NREGA workers get their due: Sonia to PM by Seema Chishti

Ensure all NREGA workers get their due: Sonia to PM by Seema Chishti

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published Published on Nov 13, 2010   modified Modified on Nov 13, 2010

National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to give “suitable directions” to rescue the MNREGA and ensure that all workers get paid in accordance with the Minimum Wages Act (1948).

In a letter dated November 11, Sonia Gandhi, who is also UPA chairperson, has appended a 10-page note on the subject. The note details the concerns and outlines the legal arguments in support of paying workers at least minimum wages prevalent in states.

Terming the matter as “urgent”, Sonia Gandhi cites the “general agreement” at the last meeting of the NAC while exhorting the PM to “have it examined and give suitable directions.”

Other than outlining the controversy over wages under the MNREGA, the note includes suggestions as well as cites legal advice tendered by Additional Solicitor General of India Indira Jaising.

It also includes a petition signed by several heavyweights including Justices  VK Krishna Iyer, MN Venkatachaliah, JS Verma, AP Shah, K Ramaswami Santosh Hegde and VS Dave, and legal minds such as Fali Nariman, Rajeev Dhawan and Mohan Gopal.

The note suggests to the Centre what needs to be done in accordance with the Constitution.

The timing of the note is interesting. By raising an issue nowhere near corruption scandals haunting UPA II — especially the spectrum scam — the message seems to be urging the government to show movement on matters not merely associated with Sonia Gandhi personally as NAC chairperson and party president, but also those matters seen as crucial to UPA’s political success in 2009.

As far as the controversy over MNREGA wages goes, a peculiar situation arose 2009 onwards when the Centre decreed that Rs 100 should be the wage rate for NREGA payments.

Because of this decree, NREGA workers started getting less in some states such as Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh where the minimum wage was higher than Rs 100.

Some activists in Andhra Pradesh even hauled the government to court for non-payment of minimum wages. The Andhra High Court then issued orders favouring the payment of at least minimum wages.

There is also a contempt petition pending in the Supreme Court, where the Centre and Andhra Pradesh are respondents.

A debate is going on between Congress states and the Rural Development Ministry as well, with states arguing that in case the recommended wage notified by the Centre exceeds the minimum wage, the tab should be picked up by the Central Government.

The Rural Development Ministry is ambivalent on the issue, saying the matter is “sub-judice”.

It was only after the NAC meeting on October 23 that the focus fell on how the MNREGA was being run into the ground because adequate wages were not being paid to workers.


The Indian Express, 13 November, 2010, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ensure-all-nrega-workers-get-their-due-sonia-to-pm/710523/


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