The delay in payment of wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has cast a shadow over thousands of families in the State.
The Union Ministry of Rural Development has disbursed ₹122.83 crore to the State, including wages to workers and material cost, on April 10 this year. But the Ministry has not paid the remaining ₹642.94 crore till Thursday.
The delay has adversely affected many workers, especially tribespeople who are primarily dependent on the MGNREGS to meet their daily needs. It will have a negative impact on the construction works, including road and check dams, which are under way in various grama panchayats.
Many grama panchayats have launched water harvesting projects by utilising the services of MGNREGS workers and the delay in payment will hamper such projects too.
Info on website
“The Ministry’s website says it has disbursed ₹122.83 crore to the State on April 10 this year. But the workers in many districts in the State, including Wayanad, have not been paid since September 30, 2016,” says S. Unnikrishnan Nair, district coordinator, MGNREGS, Wayanad. “Though we approached the Rural Development Ministry many a time for the amount, the Ministry is yet to allocate the amount,” a senior official of the MGNREGS said.
Unskilled workers
“The wages for skilled workers and material cost to the vendors are provided on time, but the wages for unskilled workers are pending,” the source added.
“We got our wages of January, February, and March in April last year. So we expected that the dues would be cleared before Vishu and Easter holidays this year. But that did not happen,” says Ammini, a tribal MGNREGS worker at Edavaka in the district who has not been paid for the past six months.
Many a time the workers express their protest to the panchayat officials, but we are helpless, a panchayat official said.
