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Kerala govt to pay ₹1,000 allowance to workers on Onam
An official from the finance department said such allowances on festival occasions to MGNREGS workers were given in the previous years too by the state government.
Kochi: The Kerala government will pay an Onam festival allowance to those who have completed 100 days of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and the state scheme of Ayyakankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme (AUEGS), officials said on Friday.
“It has been decided today that those who have done 100 days of work under MGNREGS and AUEGS will get a festival allowance of ₹1000. Around 4.6 lakh workers in the state will get this benefit,” finance minister KN Balagopal told reporters at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
The minister added that a sum of ₹46 crore has been kept aside to pay the allowance.
An official from the finance department said such allowances on festival occasions to MGNREGS workers were given in the previous years too by the state government.
AUEGS, a scheme run by the Directorate of Urban Affairs, was launched by the state government in 2010 on the lines of MGNREGS to provide at least 100 days of unskilled manual work a year to members of urban households at minimum wages. It was designed as a social safety net for those who don’t have full-time employment.
The state government had earlier announced ₹4000 as a festival bonus for employees of state sectors as well as ₹2750 as a festival allowance for those who are not entitled to the bonus.
Around 13 lakh people in the Kerala are eligible to get the special perks for Onam, the finance minister said.
