Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government is taking steps to achieve 100 per cent payment of wages into bank accounts of MGNREGA workers and emphasis is being laid on the social audit of workers to achieve transparency and accountability.
Rs 61,500 crore under MGNREGA Scheme
For the year 2020-21, the government has allocated Rs 61,500 crore for the MGNREGA scheme in total. Recently during the announcement of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package an additional provision of Rs 40,000 crore to provide employment opportunity for migrants returning to homes.
"Under the programme, a sum of Rs 28,000 core has already been released to the states/UTs," said Narendra Singh Tomar addressing the 21st meeting of the Central Employment Guarantee Council.
Narendra Singh Tomar: Job Cards for Migrant Workers is Advised
Under the MGNREGA programme, every job cardholder is eligible for wage and employment against the demand available for work. “My ministry has advised states/UTs to issue job cards to all migrant labours as per the provision of the Act. The number of jobs offered in May 2020 witnessed a 70 per cent increase, which may be, inter alia, on account of jobs sought by migrant workers,” said Tomar in an interview to the Financial express.
Himachal government gave its permission to work under the scheme for unemployed people in rural areas. As the newly allocated funds are passed Jharkhand acted swiftly by distributing MGNREGA job cards to migrant labours arrived in the state.
Uttar Pradesh which received the highest number of migrants from other states during the lockdown added more than 6.5 lakh new workers into the programme. “Uttar Pradesh has seen the second-highest level of involvement of labourers in MGNREGA in the entire country which is an achievement," said Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi.
Besides, Rajasthan 49 lakh new people are employed under the scheme after the lockdown started."Not just migrant workers, local people like barbers and laundrymen have been benefitted by the scheme,” said State's MGNREGA Commissioner PC Kishan said.
