The Election Commission of India has given the Ministry of Rural Development the go-ahead to notify revised wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for the next financial year, effective April 1. It is learnt that the Ministry, which implements the MGNREGS, approached the Election Commission for its permission after the Model Code of Conduct came into effect March 16 when the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections were announced. The poll panel, it is learnt, gave the Ministry its approval to notify the revised wages which is likely to be done within a week. The Centre fixes state-wise wage rates for MGNREGS workers under sub-section (1) of section 6 of the MGNREGA, 2005. The wage rates are fixed according to changes in the CPI-AL (Consumer Price Index-Agriculture Labourer) which reflects the increase in inflation in rural areas. It is learnt that all states have seen a hike in the MGNREGS wages for the financial year, with the overall increase being in the range of 5-6 per cent. Last year, the government had notified the MGNREGS wage rates for the financial year 2023-24 on March 25. Last month, a Parliamentary standing committee had recommended that the Centre should take a “considered view” on the issue of suitable increase in the wage rates under MGNREGA. “The need for suitable increase in the wages under MGNREGA has been felt and echoed from various quarters and also highlighted by this Committee in its earlier reports. Therefore, the Committee once again recommend that DoRD (Department of Rural Development) should take a considered view on the pertinent issue of suitable increase in the wage rates under MGNREGA and increase the wage rates at the earliest for benefitting MGNREGA beneficiaries in a befitting manner,” the committee, headed by DMK member Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, stated in its report on ‘Rural Employment Through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) – An Insight into Wage Rates and other matters relating thereto’. Under MGNREGA, every rural household, whose adult member volunteers for unskilled manual work, is entitled to get at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year. However, in some cases, the government allows additional 50 days of wage employment (beyond the stipulated 100 days). In the current financial year, about six crore rural households have availed the MGNREGS until March 20. Of these, 35.5 lakh households have completed 100 days of work.
