Despite Rs 48,000-cr budget allocation for NREGA, wage payments to 19 states frozen

Workers dry ginger in a storage house in the southern Indian city of Kochi July 13, 2009. India's spices export in the first two months of the fiscal 2008/09 rose 20 percent in volume terms on the back of strong demand for pepper, chilli and jeera, the Spices Board said on Monday. REUTERS/Sivaram V. (INDIA AGRICULTURE BUSINESS) - RTR25MGI

Despite the highest ever budgetary allocation of Rs 48,000 crore for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the current fiscal year, wage payments in over 19 states have been frozen as of October 31, 2017, reported India Spend.

Over 92 million NREGA workers in these states including Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerela, Maharashtra have not received payments in the past couple of months due to delay in payments of nearly Rs 3,066 crore, an official of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha told the newspaper.

According to the report, about 85 percent of the allocated funds for the current financial year was exhausted in early October, following which the Ministry of Rural Development had asked the Centre to issue additional funds of Rs 17,600 crore to be able to pay wages to workers for the next remaining months.

“Immediate action has been taken on proposals submitted so far by Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jammu & Kashmir and proposals have been processed,” according to a statement by the Ministry of Rural Development on October 27, 2017.

The Ministry of Rural Development has released Rs 40,480 crore so far in this Financial Year which is around Rs 4,500 crore more than the release during the corresponding period of the last financial year.

Under the scheme, the workers must receive payments within 15 days of their work. However, the wages of these workers have been delayed since the last few months.

Therefore, these workers are eligible for compensation by the government as the Act states that in cases where the workers fail to receive their payments within the due period, they will be entitled to seek compensation at per a day rate basis for the period of the delay.

However, out of the total compensation Rs 34.7 crore to be paid this fiscal year, only Rs 3.6 crore, or 10 percent, has been paid, the official told the paper.

In addition, the central government has not approved most payments for 20 days in March-April 2017 as well as 80 percent wage payments in May 2017 were not processed, said the report.