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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | NAC members blast execution of NREGA, call it 'anti-labour'

NAC members blast execution of NREGA, call it 'anti-labour'

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published Published on Sep 28, 2010   modified Modified on Sep 28, 2010



Members of the National Advisory Council (NAC) Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze have accused the UPA government of being “increasingly anti-labour” in their assessement of the national rural employment guarantee programme, on its fifth anniversary.

With support from several activists associated with the government’s flagship social sector scheme, they have alleged that the “contractor mafia”is increasingly dominating in the states, minimising the potential to create remunerative employment through the programme.

According to Roy and Dreze, contractors are taking advantage of state largesse to siphon off a major part of the funds for procurement of building materials. The statement came even as the two activists, who are members of the Committee on Employment Guarantee Act (CEGA) monitoring the Act have had a series of run-ins with rural development minister CP Joshi over issues ranging from the constitution of the CEGA to delayed wage payments and the Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendras.

“It has been five years since the launch of the programme and the gains of those first years are being frittered away by the government’s attitude,” said Dreze.”The most glaring example of this is, of course, the construction of the Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra in every gram panchayat. This is a clear violation of the Act, and a backdoor entry for the contractor mafia to make their way into the NREGA.”

He estimated that an analysis of the costing would show 90% of the cost of these bhawans is for material and only 10% on account of labour. Significantly, these Bhawans had been the brain child of Joshi.

Both Roy and Dreze said that the CEGA needed to be free of the ministry’s control, in order to do a good job of monitoring the programme. “Recently, many people in the Congress who have lost elections have been adjusted in the CEGA. Although it is legal, is it really necessary,” wondered Annie Raja, president of National Federation for Indian Women. Recently, Dreze and former Congress MP from Gujarat Madhusudan Mistry had an open disagreement with the minister during the course of a CEGA meeting.

The major problems with regard to the programme continued to be delay in payments and over the way wages have been calculated and disbursed. “We demand that wages be linked to the consumer price index (CPI) so that the real value of the wages is Rs 100 instead of the current practice of wages being capped at Rs 100 with their real value being much less,” said Dreze. “If the indexing is done properly then the wages could go upto Rs 125 per day,” he added.

“Unfortunately, all the accountability provisions of the Act have been quietly and structurally sidelined, so that all the power remains in the hands of bureaucrats and those responsible for implementation. This defeats the purpose of the Act which is to give workers enforceable entitlements,” said Dreze.

“To make matters worse, even independent efforts of the poor to secure entitlements are being discouraged. Strangely enough, the registration of workers unions has been obstructed and even barred in some places using a number of questionable excuses including the ridiculous contention that the MGNREGA workers are not workers at all,” said Dreze.

The two NAC members refused to take questions on the proposed Food Security Bill after deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s presentation to the Council on Friday.


The Financial Express, 28 September, 2010, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/NAC-members-blast-execution-of-NREGA--call-it---anti-labour--/689178/


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