Rangalal Halder Raises Issue of MGNREGA Workers with Chief Secretary 

Rohit Kumar

Port Blair, 03 June 2022

Mr. Rangalal Halder, President, Andaman and Nicobar Territorial Congress Committee has taken up the issue of the non-payment of salary & wages to MGNREGA workers & officials with the Chief Secretary, Andaman and Nicobar Administration.

Salary & wages of MGNREGA workers & officials have not been paid for a number of months. Many workers & officials are facing serious problems because of non-payment of salary & wages.

Mr. Halder in his letter to the Chief Secretary has termed the issue serious. He has requested the Chief Secretary to look into it.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 or NREGA, later renamed as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or MGNREGA in 2009, is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘right to work’. This act was passed on 23 August 2005 under the UPA government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following tabling of the bill in parliament by the Minister for Rural Development, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to at least one member of every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Women are guaranteed one-third of the jobs made available under the MGNREGA. 

Another aim of MGNREGA is to create durable assets (such as roads, canals, ponds and wells). Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid. If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to an unemployment allowance. That is, if the government fails to provide employment, it has to provide certain unemployment allowances to those people. Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement. 

Apart from providing economic security and creating rural assets, other things said to promote NREGA are that it can help in protecting the environment, empowering rural women, reducing rural-urban migration and fostering social equity, among others.