NREGA scheme affected as govt lowers minimum wage

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2007-01-08
PANAJI- The government has been forced to renege its decision to raise the minimum wage rate to Rs 150 and revert back to the rate of Rs 110 that is as per the Minimum Wages Act, inform government sources.
A notification to this effect has already been issued.
An assurance on increasing this minimum rate had been given by the government in the House recently. However, the implementation became a problem due to opposition from the industrial sector already reeling under the effects of the industrial recession and this forced the government to back down.
This has created hitches in the smooth implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme, though work, albeit on a slow pace has been going on in the Canacona and Quepem talukas. “Now the decision has been taken to pay Rs 110,” said Mr G P Pilarnkar, DRDA project director, North, and added: “New rate has already been notified and now the concentration will be on generating employment.”
An amount of Rs 6 crore has also been passed initially and will be cleared immediately by the Union ministry of Rural Development, say sources. However, the ministry also wants the money that is still with some panchayats, to be used. This money is the balances left from the amount issued under the Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana scheme and some 40 panchayats reportedly still have amounts with them.
Mr Pilarnkar said that job cards have already been issued to ten panchayats and by Friday, they will be issued to all panchayats in the North and probably in the South too. It may be recalled that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA also known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or NREGS, a flagship scheme of the UPA government, was enacted on August 25, 2005, and provides a guarantee for one hundred days of employment every year to adults from any rural household who are willing and able to do unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage. The scheme started from February 2, 2006, initially in 200 districts out of a total of 593 in the country.
This Act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of primarily the rural people by giving semi or unskilled work to people living below poverty line. It also stresses on the fact that approximately one-third of the stipulated work force must be women.
Under the scheme, the Centre would meet the cost of wages, 3/4 of material cost and a certain percentage of administrative cost with the state meeting the cost of unemployed allowance, 1/4 of material cost and part of the administrative cost.
Unemployment allowance means if employment under the scheme is not provided within fifteen days of receipt of the application, a daily allowance will be paid to the applicant.
To be eligible for the scheme, adult members of rural households should submit their name, age and address with photo to the panchayat which registers them after making enquiry and issues a job card. A registered person can submit an application for work in writing (for at least fourteen days of continuous work) either to panchayat or to the Programme Officer. The employment will be provided within a radius of 5 km; if it is beyond 5 km, extra wage will be paid.