1/6/2011 PM differs with Sonia over MGNREGA …

Published on Deccan Chronicle (http://www.deccanchronicle.com)

PM differs with Sonia over MGNREGA pay

Jan 06 2011

Jan 5 : The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in his letter to the NAC chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, has
stated that the wages given under the MGNREGA scheme are outside the ambit of the Minimum Wages Act.
It may be recalled that Mrs Gandhi in a letter to the PM on November 11, 2010, had stated that the minimum
wages act paid under the MGREGA should adhere to the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. Not satisfied with the
PM's response, the NAC member and the member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan (MKSS), Ms
Aruna Roy said that the issue needs to be discussed in the next NAC meeting.

In his reply, the Prime Minister stated that the “consensual view that emerged during consultation is that
statutorily the wage rate under MGNREGA is delinked and independent of the provisions of the Minimum
Wages Act , the government is committed to projecting a real wage of Rs 100 per day, personday, as
announced in the budget speech of 2009.”

Mrs Gandhi in her letter while asking that MGNREGA should follow the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, stated
that the PM “will take this matter into cognisance and issue necessary instruction.” However, the PM
suggested that the issue be kept under “consumer index based on agricultural prices.” He wrote “It has been
decided to index the wage rate notified under the MGNREGA to the consumer price index for agricultural
labour...”

The PM has, however, added that rural development ministry has constituted a committee headed by Dr
Pranav Sen to monitor the payment made under MGNREGA. The PM also observed that the payment made
under MGREGA would also help people fight inflation. “I am confident that the mechanism would
appropriately address the concern of protecting real wages of MGNREGA workers from inflation,” Dr Singh
wrote.

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