Poor implementation of MGNREGA in J & K

J & K Govt  Owes Several Crores Liability towards  MGNREGA Labourers

Raman Sharma

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MGNREGA or formerly called as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, NREGA was passed by the parliament in year 2005 and received the assent of the president on 05 September 2005.

The preamble of the act makes the intention of the government and the law-makers clear wherein it says “ An Act to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do .Un-Skilled manual work and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.

The law had been brought to provide at least 100 days guaranteed job to every rural household everywhere in the country except  Jammu and Kashmir.

Section 1 (2) of the principal act, like many other laws passed by  the parliament of India made it clear that  this act was also not applicable to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.  

Therefore initially the rural population of the state was deprived of the 100 days guaranteed job works, but after witnessing huge response from masses and success of the act in other parts of the country, in the year 2007, an amendment was made in the  act to enable and extend the provisions of the law in our state state, and in may-2007 the parliament vide a new legislation known as  National Rural Employment Guarantee (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Act, 2007 extended the law here as well.

As the preamble makes it clear that the only aim of this law is to ensure guaranteed wage employment to the rural population and to be honest in Jammu and Kashmir also this law has provided uninterrupted and on demanded wage employment to the  households in the villages.

One main reason for the huge success of this act had remained the strict time schedule for every stage and provision of compensation to the applicant (villager) if the competent authority fails to follow the time schedule.  

As per the provision of the law, any major person of a rural household can apply to the competent authority seeking unskilled guaranteed job of 100 days in an year and once the application is submitted seeking job, the competent authority shall have to provide either job within 15 days or give unemployment allowance to the card holder.

Since this act deals with most vulnerable class of the society therefore the enabling provisions of the law are pro-poor. As per the act, the payment should be made to the worker within 15 days and in case of delay in releasing wages there is also a provision for compensation to the worker  under payment of wages act.

Different state governments have fixed different wage rates depending upon their minimum wages law and   financial resources and Jammu and Kashmir State is amongst those states that provide minimum wages, we are  just ahead of Bihar , Jharkhad, Chattisgarh where the minimum fixed wage to MGNRGA workers is Rs 167/day, Nagaland, Tripura and  Arunachal that provides minimum wage of Rs. 172/Day. In Jammu and Kashmir the fixed wage for MGREGA works is Rs. 173/Day, that is too low even if compared with our neighbouring state like Punjab (Rs. 208/Day)  Haryana (Rs. 259/Day) or even Himachal that gives Rs. 213/Day wage to its workers under MGNREGA.

The most unfortunate part in proper implementation of MGNREGA in Jammu and Kashmir is not only of giving meagre wage of amounting Rs 173 per day but the delay even in paying such meagre wage to the workers.

Yes, as per information provided under Right to Information Act ( which is available with this scribe) by the different blocks and district officers of the Rural Development department the officers have even given figures which in many cases  runs in Crores of rupees wherein they have confessed that the government owes a huge liability as cost of labour and material against the works done under the MGNREG Act.

In  all the 22 districts of the state, be it panchayats of Kashmir Valley, Jammu or Leh there is pending liability of labour wages.

It is not only aberrant and astonishing but shameful and sinful also that poor villagers who have volunteered their manual services are deprived of their legal wages, both the state and central government must bear the blame for this inordinate delay.

During the last 2 financial years the government of India have curtailed the amount of money given under MGNREGA to the J & K government, in the year 2015-16 the union government gave Rs. 55801.83 Lacs, in the year 2014-15 the figure was Rs 52171.08, whereas in the year 2013-14 the state government received MGNREGA funds of Rs. 60315.73 Lacs and in it was  Rs 76276.16 Lacs in year 2012-13.

The poor villagers are feeling helpless and running pillar to post to get their wages, neither the Block Development Officers nor the District Panchayat Officers are giving any satisfactory  reply to these helpless citizens  and in absence of the institution of Ombudsman, these victims of government’s apathy are at the verge of starvation.

After the completion of the terms of panchayats, the ray of hope for these villagers have further diminished as now the officers are not giving any sort of information or assurance to them.

What an irony that the citizens of that state are made to keep waiting for months to get even their due wages of Rs. 173/day where their own elected law makers MLAs and MLCs irrespective of political affiliation themselves decide to double their salaries and allowances without any consultation with the citizenry.

It would have been appreciated that if these honourable elected members of the legislatures had also shown similar courtesy to ensure timely release of the wages of these hard working citizens who had volunteered their manual services for their livelihood. About  Author: Raman Sharma is an  RTI Activist from Jammu and can be reached [a] jkrtiact@gmail.com, 9796811012.