NEW DELHI: In an effort to prevent delay in payments to workers under the rural employment guarantee scheme, the government has amended the rules to provide for mandatory compensation of up to half the pending wage.
At present, 25% of the payments amounting to Rs 2,700 crore are delayed beyond the stipulated 15 days. A fraction of payments, about Rs 125 crore, have been delayed for over 90 days. Delay in wage payment is one of the biggest problems that plague the rural employment scheme.
NREGA workers will now be paid an additional one-fourth to half of the pending wages, depending on the number of days the payment has been delayed, as compensation.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) requires workers to be paid within 15 days of closing the muster roll. The notification specifies compensation of one-fourth of pending wages for delays of 15 days after the closure of muster roll and half of pending wages for delays beyond 30 days.
State governments have been asked to fix responsibilities for officials and the time limit for each stage of the wage payment process. "In case of delay at any step, the compensation amount will recovered from the responsible functionary/agency," Rural Development MinisterJairam Ramesh said in his letter to the chief ministers.
The notification sets out a four-step process for determination and payment of wages under the programme— measurement of work, entering the muster roll and measurements in the NREGA software, generation of wage lists, and uploading fund transfer orders. States are required to set out time limits for each stage of the process as well as specify the official responsible.
The whole process will be closely monitored through the management information system (MIS). The system will automatically generate the amount of compensation that would be due to the worker in the event of delay.
Ramesh has asked chief ministers to take immediate steps to implement measures set out in the notification. "Streamlining wage payment is the most fundamental and vital step to guaranteeing MGNREGA's entitlements to its beneficiaries," Ramesh said.
This is not Ramesh's first effort at enforcing a system to address delays in wage payments. In January, the minister had written to state chief ministers asking them to look into initiatives taken by Andhra Pradesh to help secure entitlements for MGNREGA workers.
The Andhra Pradesh government introduced a system by which officials responsible for the delay would be penalised and required to pay the compensation amount. To disincentivise hold ups, the compensation that is due to the NREGA worker is deducted from the official's salary.
The state has put out clear time lines for each function and official. Delays beyond these timelines would result in penalty for the concerned official.
Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
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