Govt revises wages under NREGA

Rural development minister does not explain why Sonia Gandhi's recommendations were not implemented.

The government has revised the wages for unskilled manual workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme by indexing it to inflation,Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said on Tuesday.

He told the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour that the original National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) provides for wages to be indexed to the Consumer Price Index for agricultural labour.

Against the Rs 100 per day wages originally approved,actual wages given are as high as Rs 181 in Nicobar. Haryana gives Rs 179 per day,while daily wages in Chandigarh under the scheme is Rs 174. It is Rs 170 in Andaman and Rs 150 in Kerala. The wages are in the range of Rs 118 to Rs 138 per day in other states,he said.

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Deshmukh,however,did not give a direct reply to a question raised by Brinda Karat (CPI-M) on why recommendations of the National Advisory Council headed by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in this regard were not implemented.

“Powers are with the Central government to notify wage rates,” he said.

The reply did not satisfy Karat who continued to raise the issue. Deskhmukh said regular monitoring was being done but the primary responsibility of implementing the scheme rested with the state governments.

Many times,many state governments are not cooperating in checking irregularities, he said without naming the state governments.

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