MGNREGS workers demand payment of wage arrears
Addressing the workers, Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Karmika Sangam (A.P. Agricultural Workers Sangam) vice-president K. Govinda Rao said that 27 lakh daily wage workers and their families across the State were struggling as their wages of ₹8,500 crore have not been paid by the government. The salaries of 15,000 employees, recruited under the scheme from the village to the State-level, have not been paid their salaries for the past three months, he alleged.
Workers in rural areas are dependent on MNREGS for a livelihood during the summer months and their wages have to be paid within 15 days of the completion of the work.
The technical assistants, field assistants recruited at the Mandal Computer Centres, for the supervision of MNREGS works, and various levels of employees recruited at the State-level have not been paid their salaries for the past few months, Mr. Govinda Rao alleged.
The workers would organise an agitation after a week if the wage arrears were not cleared by then, he added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
Withdraw SIR in Bihar: TMC's Derek O'Brien makes 79 suggestions to govt on Independence Day
Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien on Friday said the government should withdraw the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, and made 79 suggestions to it on issues ranging from unemployment to federalism. Independence Day 2025 Op Sindoor to water cutoff: PM Modi slams Pak in I-Day speech GST reforms by Diwali to cut daily-use taxes: PM Modi Terrorism, tech, more: PM's I-Day speech highlights The TMC Rajya Sabha leader, in an article published on the 79th Independence Day , also made suggestions on health, education, children, gender, economy, infrastructure, Parliament, and laws. In a post on X, O'Brien said, "As India celebrates its 79th Independence Day , here are 79 suggestions for the Union government. These cut across health, education, and law, among other spheres. For one, withdraw the SIR exercise in Bihar." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Buy Resmed AirSense 11 with flat 20% off ResMed Buy Now Undo He also made three pointed suggestions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi: "Answer a question in Parliament, hold a press conference, and visit Manipur". Talking about federalism, the TMC MP said the government should resolve the unrest in Manipur, give full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, and also mentioned the pending payments under MGNREGS and PMAY-G for West Bengal. Live Events The government should admit that demonetisation was a failure, roll back the Agnipath scheme , and withdraw the SIR exercise in Bihar, he said. The TMC leader also said the wages of MGNREGS and ASHA workers should be increased, and the ED should not be used as a political weapon. In Parliament, more time should be given to the opposition, have a fixed parliamentary calendar with a minimum of 100 days of sittings, and stop "bulldozing" of bills and suspension of MPs, O'Brien suggested. Pointing out "bad laws", he suggested repealing the Citizenship Amendment Act, scrapping the UAPA and sedition law, repealing the Waqf Amendment Act, and criminalising marital rape. The senior TMC leader stressed reducing unemployment, increasing the female labour force participation rate, and boosting skill training. He also suggested removing 18 per cent GST on health and life insurance, and increasing spending on public healthcare. O'Brien also suggested restarting discontinued scholarships for minorities, bringing down student suicide, stronger laws for time-bound resolution of cases related to crime against women, and legalising same-sex marriage, among others. PTI
Indian Express
12 hours ago
- Indian Express
Derek O'Brien writes: 79 suggestions for the Union government on 79th I-Day
As India celebrates its 79th Independence Day, here are 79 suggestions for the Union government. Unemployment 1. Reduce unemployment. Eight out of 10 unemployed are youth. 2. Create jobs for the youth. Youth unemployment is over 15 per cent. 3. Introduce urban employment guarantee schemes. 4. Increase wages of rural workers— real average annual growth is just 0.2 per cent. 5. Increase the female Labour Force Participation Rate. Among youth, this is around half that of men. 6. Boost skill training. Only 4 per cent of the youth workforce have formal vocational training. Health 7. Remove 18 per cent GST on health and life insurance. 8. Increase spending on public healthcare, currently less than 2 per cent of GDP. 9. Strengthen AIIMS. Over 18,000 positions are vacant in AIIMS hospitals. 10. Provide free medical and psychological treatment for acid attack survivors. Education 11. Restart discontinued minority scholarship schemes like the Maulana Azad National Fellowship. 12. Stop partisan changes to NCERT textbooks 13. Provide quality education to ST kids. A third of Eklavya schools are non-functional. Children 14. Bring down student suicides. 15. Eradicate child labour. 16. Fight drug addiction among children. 1.5 crore children aged 10-17 are addicted. 17. Focus on child health. Two out of five children up to five years of age are stunted. 18. Bring down number of zero-food children. Three out of 10 infants aged between six and 11 months are classified as such. Gender 19. Pass stronger laws for time-bound resolution of cases of crime against women. 20. Amend the Women's Reservation Bill, delink it from the census and delimitation. 21. Harmonise punishment for sexual violence against transgender persons with penalties under the BNS for women. 22. Legalise same-sex marriage. 23. Criminalise marital rape. Federalism 24. Make cess and surcharge a part of the divisible pool, to be shared with states. 25. Resolve ongoing unrest in Manipur. 26. Stop using the ED as a political weapon. Its conviction rate is 0.25 per cent. 27. Stop Hindi imposition. 28. Give full statehood to J&K. 29. Stop squeezing non-BJP states for funds. Bengal alone is owed over Rs 15,000 crore under MGNREGA and PMAY-G. Policy 30. Admit demonetisation was a failure. 31. Roll back Agnipath and bring back permanent recruitment in the Armed Forces. 32. Introduce a framework to reduce financial frauds, which increased by 97 per cent between 2020 and 2024. 33. Introduce a national elder care policy with support services and pension. 34. Ensure a five-year cooling-off period before retired judges can take up any other constitutional post. 35. Increase the judiciary's strength. Over five crore cases are pending across courts. 36. Delink MGNREGS payment from Aadhaar, which makes over 28 per cent of MGNREGS workers ineligible. 37. Strengthen RTI and include institutions like PM CARES under its purview. 38. Improve data privacy. The DPDP rules have not been framed. More than 81 crore citizens' data was leaked in 2023. 39. Improve press freedom, in which India is ranked 161 out of 180. 40. Strengthen the Armed Forces. There are 1.09 lakh vacancies in paramilitary forces. 41. Strengthen banking access. One in five Jan Dhan accounts is inactive. 42. Increase PM Kisan funds to Rs 12,000 43. Stop manual scavenging. Between 2014 and 2023, 736 people died cleaning sewers and septic tanks. 44. Reduce plastic pollution. 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated each year. 45. Build dedicated legislation for AI. Do not wait to take the cue from other countries. 46. Withdraw the SIR exercise in Bihar. 47. Implement a national bail reform policy to reduce the undertrial population. 48. Conduct the census, due since 2021, in 2026 instead of 2027. 49. Standardise gig/contract worker rights, including social security. 50. Increase the wages of MGNREGS and ASHA workers. Economy 51. Reduce poverty. Four out of five people earn less than Rs 171 a day. 52. Improve GDP growth, which was at a four-year low in 2024-25. 53. Increase value added by manufacturing. Manufacturing GVA was at 4.5 per cent in FY 2025, lower than FY 2013. 54. Reduce agriculture household debt. The average outstanding loan per agricultural household is over Rs 74,000. 55. Strengthen MSMEs. Between 2020 and February 2025, over 75,000 MSMEs were shut down. 56. Boost industrial growth, which in June was at its lowest in 10 months. 57. Create high-value jobs. Forty-six per cent of the workforce is in agriculture. 58. Reduce household indebtedness. Household savings touched a 50-year low in 2022-23. 59. Reduce per capita external debt, which rose by 132 per cent in 2014-2025. Infrastructure 60. Develop air connectivity. Of 619 routes operationalised under UDAN, only half are currently operational. 61. Improve internet access. Over 21,200 villages don't have internet connections. 62. Expand expressways. Twenty-five per cent of Bharatmala project isn't yet awarded. 63. Boost railway safety. There are over one lakh vacancies in the railways. 64. Expand KAVACH. In four years, it was installed in just 2 per cent of rail routes. 65. Ensure road safety. About half of unnatural and untimely deaths are due to road accidents. 66. Improve infrastructure. Work for only eight per cent of Amrit Bharat stations has been completed. Parliament 67. Give more time to the Opposition. Seventy per cent is used by the government. 68. Appoint a deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha. The post has been vacant since 2019. 69. Have a fixed parliamentary calendar with a minimum 100 days of sittings. 70. Stop bulldozing bills. The 500-plus-page Income Tax Bill was passed in under five minutes in the Lok Sabha this week. 71. Stop mass suspension of MPs — 146 were suspended in one session in 2023. Bad Laws 72. Repeal CAA. 73. Ban anti-conversion laws. 74. Scrap sedition and the UAPA law, which has a conviction rate under 3 per cent. 75. Repeal the Waqf (Amendment) Act. 76. Criminalise marital rape. For the Prime Minister 77. Answer a question in Parliament. 78. Hold a press conference. 79. Visit Manipur The writer is MP and leader, All India Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party. Research credit: Ayashman Dey, Chahat Mangtani, Dheemunt Jain, Varnika Mishra
News18
3 days ago
- News18
Mahua Moitra questions delay in resuming MGNREGS work in West Bengal
New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday wrote to the rural development ministry asking why an order of the Calcutta High Court to resume MGNREGS work in West Bengal has not been implemented. In her letter, the Lok Sabha member pointed out that the high court had on June 18 directed the Centre to implement the 100-day job guarantee scheme MGNREGA prospectively in West Bengal from August 1. She also shared the letter in a post on X. 'Given the extremely precise and clear directions of the HC, I would most respectfully ask the Ministry as to why this inexplicable delay in implementing the order is occurring? Almost 10 days since the deadline of August 1, 2025 has passed and the Ministry is in clear contempt of court," Moitra said in the letter. 'Under the circumstances, I humbly request you to look into the matter immediately and give us a clear timeline as to when the order will be implemented in its entirety and MGNREGS work will resume in Bengal," she said. In a written reply in Lok Sabha on July 22, Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said that the high court's order to resume Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in West Bengal is being 'studied" by his ministry. According to the ministry, the release of funds to West Bengal under MGNREGS has been stopped since March 9, 2022, as per Section 27 of the MGNREG Act, 2005, due to non-compliance with directions of the central government. The high court in its order said the Centre is empowered to impose special conditions, restrictions and regulations, which have not been imposed in other states, so as to ensure that no irregularity occurs when the scheme is being implemented in West Bengal. Allowing the Centre to continue its enquiry into the allegations of irregularities in some districts of the state, a division bench presided by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam directed that the scheme be implemented prospectively with effect from August 1. PTI AO ZMN view comments First Published: August 12, 2025, 19:45 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
