The Rural Development Department is undertaking a campaign to popularise the wage revision in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in order to attract more workers to this flagship scheme.
Sources in the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) told The Hindu that all officials at the panchayat and ward levels such as the presidents, vice presidents and other staff have been told to spread the information in their locality so that interest in this Central Government's flagship scheme among the rural people would increase.
The Centre in April had revised the wage rate under the MNREG Act and decided to amend the Act to remove the existing disparity in minimum wage to bring it in line with inflation. The revision in the rural schedule of rate came into effect in Tamil Nadu from June 5 with the maximum wage going up from Rs.119 per day to Rs.132. According to officials, the norms for measuring the quantum of work, on the basis of which the wages are paid, still remained unchanged. However, workers now have the opportunity to earn more by increasing the quantum of their work.
ADVERTISEMENT
In the week of May 25 to 31, a total of 3,57,474 persons took part in this rural job scheme with people from scheduled castes accounting for 78,982. The wages paid for that week totalled to Rs. 2.89 crore. Of the 13 blocks, the scheme seems most successful at Kottampatti and Melur blocks which, with 42,226 and 42,132 workers, occupy the top slots in number of people turning up. Thirumangalam comes third with 30,090 workers.
Women continue to take to this scheme in much higher numbers with 3,19,208 of them turning up compared to only 38,266 men. In the SC category also, this trend held up with 71,376 women turning up compared to 7,606 men.