New guidelines, hike in wages for MGNREGS workers
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COMMENTS 
States have been told to ensure that work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is completed on time after it was revealed that less than half of all jobs are finished
The Union government has issued a new set of guidelines to ensure that states complete work started under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Data from state governments reveal that more than half of all work taken up under the scheme has not been completed.
Daily wages too have been hiked in keeping with the consumer price index.
The new guidelines issued in the form of an advisory from the rural affairs ministry, dated January 21, 2011, require states to set deadlines for the completion of tasks while obtaining technical and administration sanction. States have also been instructed to constitute local vigilance and monitoring committees for every project under the MGNREGS.
They must also give top priority to finishing pending tasks before taking up new ones. If a job is not completed on time, detailed reasons must be given for the same.
The MGNREGS was launched in February 2006 and currently provides employment to 41 million households. It has a budget allocation of Rs 40,100 crore for this fiscal year. Its primary focus is to create jobs in rural areas by putting people to work on projects that will benefit them.
At a function to mark the fifth anniversary of the MGNREGS, United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi called it a “big success”. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that wages under the scheme would be increased according to a rise in the consumer price index for agricultural labour. This will raise wages by 17-30%. The daily minimum wage is currently Rs 100.
With the government decision, the revised rate of wage to an MGNREGS beneficiary in Assam will be Rs 130 instead of the present rate of Rs 100 per day. Similarly, it will go up by Rs 27 in Maharashtra, Rs 44.60 in Manipur, Rs 25 in Karnataka and Rs 34 in Chandigarh.
The National Advisory Council favours paying MGNREGS workers the minimum wage statutorily notified by different states under the Minimum Wages Act; the government is not in favour of this.
The MGNREGS will also be audited under rules that will be framed shortly. The Union government admitted before the Supreme Court on January 29, 2011, that though it has released Rs 1.08 lakh crore to the states since February 2006 it has not carried out account auditing at any level even though Section 24 of the Act requires such an audit at all levels.
Source: Deccan Herald, February 3, 2011
The Mint, February 2, 2011
NDTV Profit, January 7, 2011