Jan 5 : The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in his letter to the NAC chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, has stated that the wages given under the MGNREGA scheme are outside the ambit of the Minimum Wages Act. It may be recalled that Mrs Gandhi in a letter to the PM on November 11, 2010, had stated that the minimum wages act paid under the MGREGA should adhere to the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. Not satisfied with the PM's response, the NAC member and the member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan (MKSS), Ms Aruna Roy said that the issue needs to be discussed in the next NAC meeting.
In his reply, the Prime Minister stated that the “consensual view that emerged during consultation is that statutorily the wage rate under MGNREGA is delinked and independent of the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act , the government is committed to projecting a real wage of Rs 100 per day, personday, as announced in the budget speech of 2009.”
Mrs Gandhi in her letter while asking that MGNREGA should follow the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, stated that the PM “will take this matter into cognisance and issue necessary instruction.” However, the PM suggested that the issue be kept under “consumer index based on agricultural prices.” He wrote “It has been decided to index the wage rate notified under the MGNREGA to the consumer price index for agricultural labour...”
The PM has, however, added that rural development ministry has constituted a committee headed by Dr Pranav Sen to monitor the payment made under MGNREGA. The PM also observed that the payment made under MGREGA would also help people fight inflation. “I am confident that the mechanism would appropriately address the concern of protecting real wages of MGNREGA workers from inflation,” Dr Singh wrote.