Bengal got most funds under MNREGA: Subrata Mukherjee

He added that in a first, remuneration of all contractual employees at the panchayat level has been raised according to a decision taken by the State Employment Guarantee Council. “The employees have also been made eligible for an annual increment. While all will get an annual increment of three per cent, those who have been working for over five years, will get an increment of five per cent this year and three per cent from the next year,” said Mukherjee.

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The minister said till now, while 5,000 trained persons used to get Rs 7,500 per month, untrained hands received Rs 7,000 a month. This has been hiked by Rs 1,000 in each case.

In Bengal, out of 100 days of employment guaranteed under MGNREGA, on an average, people had worked for 34 days. Around 1.58 lakh families were employeed at the rate of Rs 174 per day.

“In the last urban budget, we have set a target of 23 crore mandays but apprehended that the Centre might, in a veiled way, stop us from achieving the target. During peak time — from October to March — the Centre had deferred disbursement of money last year. So much so that people could not be paid for five months at a stretch,” said Mukherjee.

“As a result, the employees lost interest in work and naturally, many did not collect their job cards,” he claimed while explaining why the number of mandays has fallen to around 19 crore last year. He, however, hoped that in the current year, the 23-crore mark will be reached comfortably.