Minimum MGNREGA

Apart from the fact that just 4 million jobs were created by the UPA’s flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the first nine months of this year (assuming a “job” implies working 250 days a year), the programme seems to be running into all manner of problems. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has said this is responsible for raising agriculture wages as there is a huge labour shortage during the peak farming season—given the low number of jobs being created by MGNREGA, however, we have said before, this looks unlikely (http://bit.ly/sJOZhZ). What could complicate things, however, is a Karnataka High Court ruling that mandates the government fix MGNREGA wage rates at the minimum wage of each state—while some in the central government are in favour of appealing this in the Supreme Court, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council (NAC) are in favour of linking MGNREGA wages to the minimum wage.

Read Full Story>>