From April 1, wage rates under the UPA's flagship MGNREGA will be revised upwards across the country. The wages are now linked to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPI-AL).
A notification to this effect is being issued for the period April 1 to March 31, 2013, the Rural Development Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.
At present, the wages vary in each State, as minimum wages are different. To do away with this disparity, the Government may soon amend the MNREGA Act.
Mr Ramesh said in Parliament that the Government was likely to bring an amendment to the MNREGA Act in the second part of the Budget session to end the controversy of varying wage rates.
Significant decision
The Government's decision is significant in view of the Supreme Court considering the Karnataka High Court verdict that the Centre is liable to pay higher wages under the programme in tandem with the State minimum wage rate.
“We won't amend the Minimum Wage Act. We will amend the MNREGA and we will bring this amendment in this session of Parliament,” the Minister, who tabled a statement regarding revision of MNREGA wage rate in Parliament, told reporters later.
Interestingly, the new wage rate fixed for Karnataka (Rs 155) is higher than the State's minimum wage rate of Rs 145.58 for agriculture labourers.
A flagship scheme of the UPA, the MGNREGS has been allocated a lower budget during 2012-13 at Rs 33,000 crore, compared with Rs 40,000 crore in 2011-12. In fact, in 2011-12, the Ministry spent only Rs 31,000 crore, with Rs 9,000 crore lying unspent.