Odisha hikes MGNREGA workers' wage, announces ₹532 cr package
The MGNREGS package for daily wage workers in Odisha comes on the heels of a ₹1,690 crore package announced for landless farmers, construction workers, particularly vulnerable tribal groups, SC/ST students and physically handicapped students last month.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday announced a Covid assistance package of ₹532 crore for 32 lakh Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers in the state who have worked in the last 3 months of this year.
A release from panchayati raj department said each of the 32 lakh workers will receive an additional ₹50 for each day of work done during the months in addition to the daily wage of ₹207 that National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) workers get in the state. The state panchayati raj department officials said 50.3 million persondays were created in 2020-21 (till July 1, 2020) against 75.9 million by the same time in the financial year 2021-22.
NREGA is the largest wage employment programme in the world and aims to enhance the livelihood security of households in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed work a year to every household whose adult members volunteer to work.
The latest package comes on the heels of a ₹1,690 crore package announced for landless farmers, construction workers, particularly vulnerable tribal groups, SC/ST students and physically handicapped students last month. A ₹29 crore package for street vendors too was announced last month.
Recently, Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) Khadya Adhikar Abhiyan demanded that blocks should ensure enough work under Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was sanctioned to cover as many habitations as possible. “Gram panchayats should be allowed to add works to the shelf of up to ₹10 lakhs without having to use the SECURE (Software for Estimate Calculation Using Rural Rates for Employment which is adjusted to take account of state specific workflow and rates) application. In each village, there should be 4-5 works operational so that the workers can be distributed among them,” the NGO had demanded.
Last year, tribal-dominated Keonjhar district increased the wage rate for all NREGA workers from District Mineral Foundation from ₹207 to ₹298.