NEW DELHI: The Centre is considering hiking the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to meet the minimum wages of various state governments.
According to rural development ministry officials, the wages under the scheme and the minimum wages fixed by the state are generally revised simultaneously.
But this time, the Centre has decided to revise MGNREGS wages now as some states have already hiked the wages keeping an eye on the upcoming elections.
The revision, if it happens, will be the first one since 2009. “The need for the revision became necessary as recently, Bihar hiked its minimum wages by 41 per cent. Haryana also hiked wages. The difference in the wages is causing logistical difficulties. Also, the MGNREGS wages need to be at par with the state’s minimum wages as the scheme is a key driver of growth in rural areas,” a ministry official said.
The extent of the hike would be discussed by a sub-group of chief ministers, headed by Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The issue was first brought up at a regional meeting of the Niti Agyog.
The revision has been under the pipeline for the past four years. During this period, the government set up two committees — first, under Professor Mahendra Dev in 2013, and the second under Nagesh Singh in 2016. Both committees had different views on the revision.
The Dev panel wanted the MGNREGS wages to be in tandem with minimum wages of states or the consumer price index for agricultural labourers (CPI-AL).
It suggested that the higher of the two be considered the benchmark for state-wise MGNREGS wages. But the committee headed by Singh said it was “not imperative that the wages be equalised”.