Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday requested PM Narendra Modi to increase the labour budget for the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme reasoning that it was necessitated as migrants who had returned to their homes during the second wave of the pandemic have stayed back due to reduced level of economic activities.
In a letter to the PM, Patnaik requested the Union rural development ministry to increase the labour budget for the state to 25 crore person days for 2021-22. “As demand for wage employment under the MGNREGS in villages jumped, there is a need for an increase in the labour budget for Odisha,” Patnaik wrote while pointing out
that the state was yet to receive ₹1,088.72 crore - ₹377.91 crore as wage component and ₹710.81 crore as material component - under the MGNREGS.
“Timely payment of wages to poor jobseekers is the fundamental guarantee under the MGNREG Act. Similarly, timely release of payment for material is critical for the creation of tangible and durable assets under MGNREGA,” he wrote. Last week, hundreds of MGNREGA workers in Sambalpur district staged a rally at Keshaibahal demanding quick payment of their wages.
While the daily wage fixed by the RD ministry for MGNREGS work per person is ₹207, the Odisha government pays ₹308 per day in 20 migration-prone blocks in the state. Additional 200 days of works have also been approved for these 20 blocks.
{{/usCountry}}While the daily wage fixed by the RD ministry for MGNREGS work per person is ₹207, the Odisha government pays ₹308 per day in 20 migration-prone blocks in the state. Additional 200 days of works have also been approved for these 20 blocks.
{{/usCountry}}In 2020-21, Odisha generated 20 crore person days’ of works, 81 per cent higher than the total person days of work created in 2019-20 financial year on account of migrants who had stayed back following the Covid lockdown. In 2019-20, 11.14 crore person days’ of works were generated under the rural job scheme which provides for livelihood security by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
In 2018-19, about 8.30 crore person days’ of works were generated.