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Timely Wages to MNREGA Workers

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December 03, 2017

Why in news?

There is an ongoing PIL in the Supreme Court between Swaraj Abhiyan versus Union of India.

What is the PIL about?

  • The PIL is about the lack of functioning of social security systems like the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the National Rural Employment Act (NREGA).
  • The NREGA mandates that every worker must receive her wages within 15 days of completion of a workweek.
  • If this condition is not met, a delay compensation is to be paid at a rate of 0.05% per day of delay.
  • In spite of this merely 21% of the sampled transactions were paid within the stipulated 15-day period.

How is the payment made?

  • Under the National Electronic Fund Management system (Ne-FMS), upon completion of a work week, a Funds Transfer Order (FTO) is generated at the block/ panchayat.
  • Then the Centre approves the FTO digitally.
  • Then the money is transferred directly to the individual workers’ account.
  • The time taken till FTO generation is the state’s responsibility and the time taken thereafter is the Centre’s responsibility.

What constitute the delays?

  • Definition of Delay - The current definition of the delay calculates delay days only until the FTOs get generated at the block/ panchayat.
  • The times taken by the Centre to process the FTOs and release wages are not getting accounted as delays.
  • Payment Infrastructure - In an attempt to improve the payments process, the government migrated to the Ne-FMS in April 2016.
  • Prior to the Ne-FMS system, the state governments would use a contingency/ revolving fund to make the payments until the Centre sanctioned the funds.
  • The current payments system is completely centralised.
  • The state governments cannot pay the workers even if they intend to.

What should be done?

  • Not only has the government violated the law but also the worker's rights to timely wages.
  • The payments infrastructure requires seamless coordination between the Centre, states, payment agencies, and the administrative bodies.
  • There should also be a clearly defined responsibilities for each one of them.

 

Source: Business Standard

 

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