Rural job scheme workers not paid for months - Union Rural Development Ministry stops funding as Punjab Government fails to make available audited accounts
Monday, 24/11/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20141124/punjab.htm#1
Bathinda : The delay by the Punjab Government in making available to the Centre audited accounts of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) plan has hit workers as well as development projects related to the scheme.
Due to the delay, the Union Ministry of Rural Development has held back the release of funds. Apart from various projects, thousands of workers have been at the receiving end. They have been awaiting their salaries for the past six to 10 months.
Ram Raj Meena, Under Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development (New Delhi), confirmed on phone that certain funds were held up due to the delay in receipt of audited accounts.
Though a Principal Secretary in the Punjab Government claimed the fund flow had started again, MGNREGA workers in various parts of the state said their salaries were yet to be cleared.
Under the scheme, workers are entitled for pay within 15 days of any work being done (Section 3 of the Act). Failing this, they are entitled for compensation as per the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (NREGA, Schedule II, Rule 30).
Jagroop Singh, adviser, MGNREGA Rozgar Prapat Mazdoor Union (Punjab), said, “We will hold a state-level rally in Ludhiana on November 28 to demand the release of our salaries.”
The Tribune gathered figures on the pending payments from various parts of the state.
Amritsar
An official at the District Programme Coordinator office here said payments worth Rs 1.02 crore were pending. He said these included labour wages and material costs.
Of the total amount, Rs 34 lakh was pending against material costs. Though there was no pending payment in Attari block of the district, Majitha block had the maximum liability of Rs 17.43 lakh.
Ludhiana
The district has 84,127 job card-holders. Sources said the beneficiaries had not been paid since January.
They said Rs 2.64 crore was pending against salaries for the financial year 2013-14, which was over and above this year’s Rs 9.85 crore.
Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal said, “The funds are yet to be released by the Union Government. Though some workers in a few blocks of the district were paid for January and February, a majority of others are still awaiting their salaries.”
Faridkot
The district has a pending payment of Rs 4.76 crore against 1,58,303 work-days so far this fiscal.
“A person is paid Rs 200 a day and the Punjab Government’s contribution is 10 per cent… The poor labourers have been waiting for their dues for the past several months,” a senior officer in the district administration said.
Muktsar
There are nearly 63,000 MGNREGA job card-holders in the district and all of them are without wages for the last seven months. The workers have lodged protests a number of times outside the District Administrative Complex, but to no avail. Ramvir Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner, said, “An amount of around Rs 4.5 crore is yet to be paid to the workers in the district.”
Fazilka
The district administration has a pending bill of Rs 6.65 crore towards the salary of labourers under the scheme.
Sources said the administration had not received payment from the Centre after the General Election in May. The administration last received a payment of Rs 7.23 crore in April. “The liability has mounted to Rs 6.65 crore from May to date,” said a district administration official.
Sangrur has wages amounting to Rs 3.08 crore pending for the last over four months. The figure for the same period stands at Rs 4.91 crore in Barnala. The story is no different in other parts of the state as the wait for wages is proving to be an endless one for the labourers as well as others associated with the rural job guarantee scheme.
(Inputs by Manmeet Gill, Anupam Baghria, Balwant Garg, Sushil Goyal, Archit Watts, Praful Chander Nagpal and Anirudh Gupta)
