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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Plan to link NREGA to state wage rates

Plan to link NREGA to state wage rates

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published Published on Mar 29, 2012   modified Modified on Mar 29, 2012
-The Telegraph

The wage rate under rural job scheme NREGA could soon be brought on a par with the minimum wages for agricultural labourers fixed by states.

The Centre is likely to amend the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by incorporating a provision saying the wage cannot be less than the minimum rate for agricultural labourers in a particular state. At present, there are discrepancies between the two.

A Karnataka NGO had filed a case to protest the disparity in the high court, which ruled last September that the NREGA wage cannot be less than the minimum rate fixed by the state government for farm labourers. It also asked the Centre to pay the arrears arising from the discrepancy.

The Union rural development ministry, which oversees the scheme, then moved the Supreme Court. It claimed that it would be saddled with an immediate financial burden of Rs 3,500 crore on account of the arrears if the high court order was implemented.

Of late, however, the ministry has had a rethink and is learnt to be in favour of the amendment to link the NREGA wage to the state rate for farm workers, sources said.

Minister Jairam Ramesh confirmed plans to bring the amendment and, though he did not wish to divulge details, he said the bill may be tabled during the ongoing budget session of Parliament.

A source said the new provision in the act would make it clear that the wage rate under the central job programme cannot be less than that of the minimum wage for agricultural labourers in a state.

This marks a shift of stance by Ramesh, who had earlier written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying the Minimum Wage Act, 1948, should be amended to introduce a special wage structure for the job scheme.

In its petition in the Supreme Court, the ministry had described as “arbitrary” revisions in the minimum rates for farm labourers by some states in the past six years and pleaded helplessness before the judges on increasing the NREGA wages to match the state benchmarks.

Bengal wages up

The ministry has revised and notified the NREGA wages for 2012-13 in view of inflation, based on the consumer price index for farm labourers.

The rate in Bengal will be Rs 136 per day, up from Rs 130 in 2011-12. But state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee has sought a rise to Rs 200.

Workers in Haryana will get the highest at Rs 191. The rate will be Rs 122 in Bihar and Jharkhand.

The Telegraph, 29 March, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120329/jsp/nation/story_15308948.jsp#.T3P1mmGO0fU


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