Minimum wage hiked under central scheme in state

In another development that marks a thaw in the relations between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress,just about two months before the panchayat polls,the Centre on Monday increased the minimum wages in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in West Bengal from Rs 136 to Rs 151.

In another development that marks a thaw in the relations between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress,just about two months before the panchayat polls,the Centre on Monday increased the minimum wages in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in West Bengal from Rs 136 to Rs 151.

Our demand was Rs 174 per day and for this I have written nine letters to Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh since I became minister for this department two years ago, Subrata Mukherjee,state minister for panchayat and rural development,told The Indian Express.

The state is still behind states like Haryana which has the highest wages with Rs 200,and states like Goa,Karnataka,Punjab,Delhi,among others.

In 2006 when the scheme was launched the state had only Rs 68 as minimum wage. Following a meeting between officials of the panchayat department and those of the Ministry of Rural Development on February 25 in New Delhi,the Centre has fixed a target of creating 22.61 crore man days in the next year and for this a total of Rs 5432.50 crore will be spent. Out of this,while the central government will spend Rs 4919.93 crore,the state will spend Rs 512.57 crore.

Cartoon row: state seeks time to file report

The state government has sought six weeks time from the West Bengal State Human Rights Commission to file its action-taken report on its recommendation over the arrest of Prof Ambikesh Mahapatra in April last year.

Prof Ambikesh Mahapatra and Subrata Sengupta were arrested for circulating a cartoon of Mamata Banerjee on April 12 last year. The commission took suo motu cognizance over the incident on April 16. On August 13,the commission recommended that the state government pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 each to Prof Mahapatra and Subrata Sengupta for their illegal detention at the police station. The state governments response comes to the WBSRC when a PIL was filed in the High Court on the issue and the case is scheduled for hearing on March 6. The commision had earlier asked the state to file a report in two months on its recommendations.

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