Union Funds should improve MGNREGA wages, not make Aadhar obligatory: Congress
As a share of GDP, allocations to MGNREGA have been diminished to 0.26 per cent in 2024-25, Ramesh stated declaring that the World Financial institution recommends that a minimum of 1.7 per cent of the GDP must be allotted to this programme.
Of the budgetary allocations made to MGNREGA, estimates counsel that about 20 per cent of the funds is paid in direction of clearing dues from earlier years, he stated.
“The minimal common notified wage fee was elevated by 7 per cent in FY25- at a time when Client Worth Index (CPI) inflation is estimated to be 5 per cent. The true wage improve is due to this fact a miserly 2 per cent,” he identified.
“Between 2019-20 and 2023-24, near 4 crore job playing cards had been deleted. In the meantime, just one.2 crore job playing cards have been added within the final two years,” Ramesh stated.
Estimates from one state counsel that 15 per cent of the deletions had been wrongful and on 1 January, 2024, the central authorities made it obligatory that each one funds for MGNREGA should be by way of the Aadhar-Primarily based Fee System (ABPS), the Congress basic secretary stated.
Nevertheless, 27 per cent of employees are ineligible for cost beneath the ABPS and their demand for work shouldn’t be registered, he stated, including that many additionally lose their wages regardless of doing work.
“The Nationwide Cellular Monitoring System (NMMS) can also be required for employees to register attendance. Nevertheless, glitches within the app, restricted entry to smartphones, and irregular connectivity have resulted in widespread prevalence of unregistered attendance, unrecorded work, and delayed wage funds,” Ramesh argued.
Through the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, MGNREGS employees from throughout the nation raised these points on the Jan Sunwai held at Ranka, Garhwa District, Jharkhand on 14th February 2024, he recalled.
Eight months later, these points proceed to persist — “a government-created human, financial, and institutional tragedy”, he stated.
