Legal Updates
NREGA wages to be tied to inflation
New Delhi, 5 January 2011: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the rural development ministry to develop an index for fixing and revising wages under rural job scheme NREGA.
The move follows a letter from Sonia Gandhi requesting Singh to find a way to ensure workers under the scheme are paid the minimum wages across the country.
The minimum wages in several states, such as Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Karnataka, are now higher than Rs 100, the rate notified by the Centre for the scheme.
Till the new index is worked out, wages under the scheme will be tied to inflation as measured by the consumer price index for agricultural labourers. “The order will be effective from January 1, 2011,” said a source in the ministry, which oversees the scheme.
In his letter dated December 31 to Sonia, the Prime Minister wrote: “It has been decided to index the wage rate notified under NREGA to the consumer price index for agricultural labourers while maintaining the distinction between the notified wage rates under the NREGA and the Minimum Wages Act.”
Singh said a committee under the chairmanship of economist Pronab Sen had been formed to devise an NREGA wage index.
“However, till such time a satisfactory index is proposed by the committee and accepted by the government, the NREGA wage rates would continue to be indexed with the consumer price index for agricultural labour. I am confident that the above mechanism would appropriately address the concern of protecting the real wages of NREGA workers from inflation,” Singh said in his letter.
The Sonia-headed National Advisory Council had in a meeting on October 23 last year endorsed the proposal that workers under the scheme need to be paid at rates specified under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
“Workers in 19 states are being denied minimum wages under the NREGA scheme,” said Harsh Mander, a member of the council.
Source: The Telegraph
17-30 percent hike in wages under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA
New Delhi, 6 January 2011: The wage rates under MGNREGA have been increased by the Ministry of Rural Development with effect from 1st January 2011. This will result in 17-30% enhancement of wages under the premier flagship program of the UPA Government across the country. This was announced by the Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Dr. C.P.Joshi at a Press Conference in Krishi Bhawan here today. The decision to hike wages under MGNREGA comes in the wake of recommendations of National Advisory Council and consultations with the different Ministries. The move is likely to benefit more than 5 crore beneficiaries under MGNREGA across the country. The wage rates have been enhanced on the basis of Consumer Price Index for the agricultural labour calculated on the basis of Rs. 100 or the actual wage rate, whichever is higher as on April 1st, 2009.
The Minister said that linking the wages to CPI- Agricultural labour will result in annual revision of the wage rates. He reiterated that the Government will not lag behind in providing adequate livelihood security to the poor, down trodden, and members of SC and ST communities. Dr. Joshi also informed that the Government is waiting for the report of the Pranob Sen Committee constituted to deliberate upon a separate index for MGNREGA. The recommendations once submitted by this Committee will also be considered by the Government.
Source: Press Information Bureau