Has govt given up on NREGA amendment?
With the UPA grappling with stuck big ticket legislation awaiting parliamentary nod, the government appears to have given up on demands to amend the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in a bid to give statutory shape to the linkage of inflation with wages under the flagship scheme.
In this, the UPA government also appears to have lost enthusiasm it had for the MGNREGA till 2009, as now the focus is more on the roll-out of the national food security law.
Even though the demands to bring parity to the MGNREGA wages with the state minimum wages have largely been unheard, the ministry of rural development has been mulling to pilot an amendment to the flagship scheme for quite some time.
“We still believe that we should amend the MGNREGA so that the linkage of the wages with consumer price index gets a statutory backing. Otherwise, future government may decide to discontinue the linkage, which is now effective through an executive order,” said a senior official of the ministry of rural development.
However, the elections looming now and least expectations from the remaining sessions of Parliament as far as legislative business is concerned, the government has almost given up on any possibility of the MGNREGA.
“Where is the time to do so now,” quipped Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh in an apparent hint to the trouble the UPA government is facing with uncleared legislative businesses pending in Parliament.
The Monsoon Session of Parliament, which kicks off in the first week of August, is being keenly awaited for the national food security bill, so far promulgated through an ordinance, and the land acquisition bill, pending despite broad consensus among a number of political parties for an early clearance.
Former member of the National Advisory Council, Aruna Roy had withdrawn from the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi-led panel, after lamenting that despite various recommendations the government did not heed the demands to link MGNREGA wages with the minimum wages of the states.
A number of state governments, including the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, has been demanding upward revision of the MGNREGA wages to bring them at par with their respective minimum wages.
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