40% MGNREGA wage payments for April, May still pending

Almost 14% of MGNREGA wage payments from April are still pending greater than a month later, whereas 60% of May payments are additionally pending, in line with scheme information. A current examine of the MGNREGA wage transactions in Jharkhand exhibits that whereas the States are producing fund switch orders with out delays, it’s the Centre which is dragging its ft in making payments, taking 3 times longer than it ought to.

However, though Tamil Nadu has one of many highest charges of wage cost pendency in line with the scheme’s Management Information System (MIS) information, the State’s rural improvement officers say the data has merely not been up to date.

The lifeline

At a time when rural India is dealing with the brunt of the second wave of the pandemic, with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) performing as a lifeline for these dropping livelihoods and dealing with elevated well being bills, activists say delayed wage payments are unconscionable.

The MGNREGA cost course of consists of two levels. In the primary stage, as soon as the work is accomplished, a Fund Transfer Order (FTO) is generated by the State and digitally despatched to the Centre. In the second stage, the Centre processes the FTOs and transfers wages on to the employees’ accounts. According to the scheme’s pointers, Stage 1 have to be accomplished in 8 days and Stage 2 have to be accomplished inside 7 days after that. Thus, a employee ought to anticipate to receives a commission 15 days after the closure of a muster of labor.

MIS information present that, as on May 30, of the 6.4 crore wage cost transactions whose FTOs have been generated in April and May, greater than 2.5 crore, or 40% have been still pending. The MGNREGA web site confirmed that 99% of FTOs in these two months had been generated inside 15 days of labor being full, indicating that State governments had not triggered the main delays.

Disputes MIS information

However, Tamil Nadu Rural Development Secretary K. Gopal disputed the MIS information on the State, which confirmed a excessive 77% price of pendency, together with 100% pendency for May transactions. “As per my information, the PFMS [or Public Financial Management System] is to be updated by the Government of India. Actual position is not reflected. The wages have been fully settled up to May 20, and are due for the remaining period only,” he mentioned.

Researchers at LibTech India examined a random pattern of greater than 1.43 lakh transactions in 26 blocks of Jharkhand. Overall, the State has a 54% pendency price, in line with the MIS. They discovered that in 50% of transactions, the second stage alone took 26 days to finish, greater than 3 times the stipulated seven-day interval. Nearly 1 / 4 of transactions took greater than a month to be processed by the Centre, mentioned the examine.

“The delays violate the law, which stipulates payment within 15 days and also stand in contravention of the Supreme Court’s May 2018 orders. The Centre must calculate the delays and pay compensation to the workers for the full extent of delays, in both stages of the payment process,” mentioned Rajendran Narayanan, assistant professor at Azim Premji University and a co-author of the LibTech report.

“It’s unusual for such delays to occur in the first part of the year, when the scheme should be flush with funds. Currently, the Centre does not calculate or pay compensation for Stage 2 delays. But as far as the worker is concerned, if they don’t get the money, it doesn’t matter whether the delay is the fault of the State or the Centre,” mentioned Sakina Dhorajiwala, who co-authored the report. “If there is such uncertainty about wages, it affects demand also, at a time when the MGNREGA work is desperately needed in rural India.”