The implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is mostly flawed and only 20% of the job card holders could get 100 days of work and that too the payments that are supposed to be paid within 15 days have been pending for more than six months now, observed speakers at a roundtable on the implementation and outcome of the 15 years of implementation of the scheme in Anantapur on Sunday.
Participating in the programme, A.P. Vyavasaya Karmika Sangham president Dadala Subba Rao said that the government needed to pay a penalty of 0.5% interest per month for the delayed period if wages were due beyond 15 days.
The rural farm labourers and unskilled personnel were supposed to get 100 days of work. However, a majority of the job cardholders and those getting work came from relatively well-to-do farming families. “The Centre and State governments must ensure that horticulture activity is also supported by this scheme,” he pointed out.
‘Paltry wage’
“Given the wage of ₹247 per day under the scheme, it is difficult for the beneficiaries in the Rayalaseema Region to support their families. It is atrocious on the part of the Centre to allocate only ₹70,000 crore for the scheme in the current year’s budget against ₹1.10 lakh crore allocated last year. The per day wage offered is much below than ₹18,000 per month suggested by the Supreme Court guidelines,” Mr. Subba Rao pointed out.
Anantapur MP Talari Rangaiah said the State government was doing its best to implement the MGNREGS. The other participants, however, took objection to the government including housing and other such activities. Demand to include agriculture activity within its scope was watering down the scheme altogether, they opined.
The soft soils, medium-hard soils, and the hard soils should be categorised separately for calculating the quantum of work done for the daily wage, they said, citing an example of loose soils in Godavari districts in contrast with that of Anantapur and Kadapa region.
‘Collective effort needed to bring a change’
Former MLC M. Geyanand said a concerted effort must be made to bring pressure on the government to get the MGNREGS implemented properly.
All the people’s organisations, political parties and NGOs must work in tandem to achieve dignity of life for the rural poor and stop the migration of farm labourers and unskilled workers from Andhra Pradesh.
Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability president Gurpreet Singh from New Delhi participated in the meeting through video link.
The Centre for Rural Studies and Development and Praja Parirakshana Samithi president Bose, CPI(M) district secretary V. Rambhupal and Manava Hakkula Vedika president Basha and others participated in the programme.
