PANJIM: The State government is actively considering to enhance daily wages of beneficiaries of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) from Rs 322 to Rs 407 per day, which are the minimum wages in the State even as these workers have not been paid their wages for the last few months.
According to official sources, the Department of Rural Development has submitted a proposal to the State government to link MGNREGA wages to minimum wages in the States. The proposal is under consideration of the government.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
In August this year, the Labour Department increased the minimum wages for all schedules of employment in the State, following which the minimum wages for unskilled workers category was fixed at Rs 407 per day. Prior to it, the minimum wages in the State were Rs 307 per day.
In October this year, the wages of MNREGA workers were delayed due to some problem with the software of the nationalised bank.
There are more than 49,000 registered workers having job cards out of which over 8,000 are active workers while, the others have been put in the passive workers list.
Reacting to Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao’s charge that almost 8,000 MGNREGA workers were awaiting their rightful payments for last many months, the official source that the wages of over 400 workers from Salcete taluka were paid while, the wages of over 3,000 workers from other talukas amounting to more than Rs 70 lakh would be cleared within a fortnight.
Alemao had demanded that the government should stop holding events and release timely payments of the hardworking MGNREGA workers, who meet their needs with daily earnings. He had also demanded that these workers must be provided 100 days of wage work.
