The Women’s Convention on MGNREGA 2005 has drawn the government's attention to the decreasing number of working days of job card holders due to the failure to provide timely wages to job card holders in Manipur, among other grievances.
The Women’s Convention on MGNREGA 2005 was organised by the All Manipur Nupi Marup in Imphal on May 1, in an effort to raise awareness on MGNREGA Scheme and its benefits.
At the Convention, former All Manipur Nupi Marup president S Sorojini Dev said that usage of new machineries under MGNREGA and failure to provide the wages of job card holders in time has led to the decrease of number of working days of the job card holders. She drew the attention of the authorities concerned towards the same.
Secretary of the Nupi Lup Sumatibala Devi expressed discontentment over the lack of timely conduction of social audit of the flagship scheme by Gram Panchayat and Rural Development, it stated.
She lamented over the increase in misuse of wages of job card holders by programme officers, Pradhan, Junior Engineer or some members, it mentioned. She asserted that the public has started raising questions whether the flagship scheme has been misappropriated by the rich and powerful as a business to earn mere profits, it further stated.
Sumatibala also condemned the slashing of the allocation for MGNREGA in the Union Budget, 2023 and demanded increase of the fund for the flagship scheme, it said.
She further urged the authorities concerned to provide 200 days of wage guaranteed scheme, to increase the daily wage to Rs 500, to initiate Urban Employment Guarantee Bill at the earliest and to take legal actions against those misappropriating the scheme, it mentioned.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 or MGNREGA, earlier known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work' provided by the Constitution of India, it stated.
Under the NREGA Scheme, which is now renamed as MGNREGA Scheme, 150 days of guaranteed wage employment should be provided to an individual of a rural household, it stated.
It also mentioned that one-third of job card holders should be women and to give unemployment allowance if demanded employment is not provided to those who have received a job card within 15 days, it added.
