Amid Complaints of Social Tension, Union Govt Scraps Caste-Based MGNREGA Payments

Since earlier this year, payments were being made by the Union government to three separate state government accounts, for SCs, STs and others, even for workers on the same muster roll.

The Wire Staff

Since earlier this year, payments were being made by the Union government to three separate state government accounts, for SCs, STs and others, even for workers on the same muster roll.

amid complaints of social tension union govt scraps caste based mgnrega payments

Representative image. Photo: nevil zaveri/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

New Delhi: The Centre has scrapped caste-based wage payments in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a system it had introduced earlier this year.

The move follows complaints from state governments on how tension has risen following its announcement, The Hindu has reported.

On March 2, the Ministry of Rural Development, having been instructed by the Union finance ministry, asked state governments to generate three separate fund transfer orders or FTOs – one each for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and others – for every muster roll in an MGNREGA work site, the news outlet reported.

The sanctions and payments would then be made by the Union government to three separate accounts of the state government.

In a meeting with the Finance Secretary and Expenditure Secretary on October 11, MoRD Secretary N.N. Sinha said that state governments had expressed that they had faced difficulties in making this change and that it has multiplied their work, resulting in payments arriving at different times to different communities. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been among those who have raised the issue with the Union government.

Also read: High Demand for MGNREGA Is a Ringing Fire Alarm

Hindu has cited a study by LibTech India analysing 18 lakh FTOs over the last six months in 10 states, which found that SC and ST workers were getting paid significantly faster than those from other communities. In some cases the delay was over two months even though all workers were in the same muster roll, workers' unions have alleged. This had led to tensions in villages.

The Union finance ministry has now directed the MoRD to “revert to the previous system of generating single muster, single FTO [or Fund Transfer Order] and transferring money into a single NeFMS account”.

The payments being made to SCs, STs and others will be recorded under separate heads under the same FTO.

The rural employment guarantee programme is a lifeline for millions of rural poor, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also read: How Can Employment Be Put at the Centre of the Indian Policymaker’s Agenda?

In the Union Budget presented earlier this year, the government allocated Rs 73,000 crore to the scheme for financial year 2021-22. It was 34 per cent less than the 2020-21 revised estimate of Rs 1.11 lakh crore.

In the previous financial year, the Union government had revised the allocation to Rs 1.11 lakh crore from an initial allocation of Rs 61,500 crore.

The People's Action for Employment Guarantee, a group of activists who were earlier members of the Central Employment Guarantee Council, a statutory body under the MGNREGA, has flagged an "acute shortage" of funds under the rural employment guarantee programme.

This article went live on November third, two thousand twenty one, at zero minutes past two in the afternoon.

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