There’s some good news for the beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) as the wage rate per day has been revised with effect from April 1.
It has gone up from Rs. 191 in 2014–15 to Rs 204 in 2015-16, an increase of Rs 13 per day.
With this, the wage rates have been revised nine times since the launch of the job scheme in 2006-07 by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
In 2006-07, the daily wage was Rs. 69. The revision in the wage rate, indexed to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPIAL), came into effect retrospectively from April 1 and will be for 2015-16.
The State is expected to get Rs. 2587.35 crore during 2015-16 for taking up various works under the scheme. The State had spent Rs. 1683.65 crore against the allotment of Rs. 3151.76 crore in 2014-15.
In other States
According to the Centre’s notification, unskilled workers in Haryana would get the highest daily wage of Rs. 251.
It has been fixed at Rs. 229 in Kerala, Punjab – Rs. 210, Goa – Rs. 208 and Karnataka – Rs. 204.
Six states with low wages are Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh – Rs. 159, Uttar Pradesh – Rs. 161, Meghalaya – Rs. 163, Bihar – Rs. 162 and Arunachal Pradesh – Rs. 167.
