The revised MGNREGA wages for the current fiscal announced recently have left various State governments in a quandary as they apprehend that labourers would not take up jobs as the new rates are below the minimum wages fixed by the States.
The wages under the Centre’s flagship rural employment scheme has seen the maximum hike in Haryana. The southern States have got a substantial raise, while those in the east a minimal increase.
Remuneration under MGNREGA has been raised to ₹240 in Kerala from ₹229 last year. It has been hiked to ₹224 in Karnataka from ₹204, ₹203 in Tamil Nadu from ₹183 last, and ₹194 in Andhra Pradesh from ₹180.
While Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have got a hike of ₹20, the wages in West Bengal and Assam have been raised by just ₹2 and ₹3 respectively.
Odisha gets a raw deal
Odisha did not get any hike with the wage remaining stagnant at ₹174. This despite Odisha government’s request to the Centre to raise it at least to ₹200.
With the State facing a drought, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had in November last year written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to increase the MGNREGA wages to ₹200, which was the minimum wage in the State for unskilled labourers.
In Punjab, the wage has been fixed at ₹218, a raise of ₹18 over the previous year. Punjab Chief Parkash Singh Badal had in September last year asked the Centre to increase the wages to at least ₹300 a day to attract workers.
‘Unconstitutional’
Criticising the Centre on the new MGNREGA wages, social activist Nikhil Dey said that not giving the workers even the minimum wage in a number of States is “immoral, illegal and unconstitutional” at a time when the salaries of MLAs have increased up to even four times and those of Central government employees have gone up substantially following implementation of the 7th pay commission recommendations.
Citing the example of Rajasthan, he said that while the MGNREGA wage has been fixed at ₹181, raising it from ₹173, the minimum wage in the State is ₹197. He said a similar situation exists in a number of States such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
When a dispute had arisen over the gap between remuneration under MGNREGA and the minimum wage fixed in Karnantaka, the Karnataka High Court had in July 2011 asked the Centre to pay the rural job scheme workers the State’s minimum wages, including the arrears since 2008.