Chennai: The Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has come as a boon to the villagers. Under the MGREGS, nearly 80 lakh workers get jobs in Tamil Nadu, benefiting lakhs of families.
During the lockdown, in order to safeguard the livelihood of lakhs of villagers, the government has allowed MGREGS workers to continue their work, conforming to the Covid protocols - such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance.
Accordingly, the desilting of lakes, rivers, and canals is currently going on in several villages falling under major blocks, providing a minimum employment guarantee to the rural citizens.
When the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched in several villages, the workers used to get their wages from the panchayat secretaries concerned.
After misappropriation charges were made, the wages were credited into the workers’ saving accounts in banks.
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Plea to raise number of workdays to 150
Speaking in this regard, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh's PRO, N. Veerasekaran said, "The Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is a boon to the people living in the rural segments. Particularly, when lockdown has been clamped across the State and livelihood affected. This scheme provides the poor people with the work that will surely help them run their families easily."
Lauding the government for this, Veerasekaran said, the number of workdays should be increased from 100 to 150 days.
Meanwhile, against the background of the pandemic causing untold miseries to the rural people, the block development officers have been instructed to ensure that wages are paid to the workers of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme without any delay.
When the scheme was launched, only Rs. 180 used to be paid to each worker as a daily wage. Later, it was enhanced to Rs.100, Rs.180 and after some time, to Rs.229. Last year, on a directive from the Central government, the wages for the workers under what is known as 100-day rural employment work were raised to Rs.256. It is to be noted that accordingly, the Tamil Nadu government published the raise in wages in its Government Gazette.
In every fiscal year, the works under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme are given to the rural labourers only for 100 days.
The history of MGREGS
The Centre-initiated Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched in 200 districts across the nation in 2006 when the Congress was at the helm of affairs in the country’s administration. Under the scheme, the ordinary rural folks are working for eight hours. In phases, the scheme was extended to all districts and finally, it is there in all States.
As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, initially, the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched in Cuddalore, Dindigul, Nagapattinam, Sivaganga, Tiruvannamalai and Ramanathapuram districts on February 2, 2006. Later, the scheme was extended in such a way as to cover all districts.
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