India : KPRS seeks clearance of MNREGA wage arrears
The Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha (KPRS) affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions has demanded that the State government take up with the Union government the issue of release of
funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) for clearing the wage arrears of labourers in the State.
KPRS president Maruti Manpade told presspersons on Sunday that the total wage arrears under the MNREGA to the workers in the State had been estimated at Rs. 500 crore now. In Kalaburagi alone, the pending arrears were more than Rs. 10 crore.
Mr. Manpade said that the Union government had so far released only Rs. 20,000 crore of the Rs. 40,000 crore allocated to the MNREGA in the Union Budget this year to all the states and the remaining was expected to be released in instalments after September.
The crisis in payment of arrears was mainly due to the clearance of arrears of Rs. 14,000 crore for 2015-16 using the Rs. 20,000 crore released this year.
Distress
He said that unless the Union government advanced the release of the Rs. 20,000 crore available under the MNREGA for the current year, the problem of wage arrears would further compound and the workers would be in deep distress.
Mr. Manpade said that a delegation of the KPRS would meet Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister H.K. Patil in Bengaluru in a couple of days and urge him to take up with the Union government their demand to advance the release of funds under the MNREGA and release at least Rs. 10,000 crore now to meet the payment of wage arrears.
The delegation would also demand that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lead a delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely for the purpose.
Mr. Manpade said that the delegation would urge the State government to take up with the Union government their demand to increase the wages paid under the MNREGA from Rs. 224 to Rs. 500 per day.
Demanding the intervention of Basavaraj Patil Sedam, MP, in this matter, the KPRS would hold a demonstration outside the local office of the MP in Kalaburagi on August 4. They would also hold a demonstration outside the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru in the second week of August, he added.
Delegation to meet Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development in Bengaluru