NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to list the plea alleging non-payment of wages to lakhs of workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA).
The plea by advocate Prashant Bhushan has said that there is currently a grave crisis faced by crores of workers under the scheme in the country, with their pending wages piling up along with negative balances in most of the states.
It has added that as of November 26, 2021, the state governments are facing a shortage of Rs 9682 crores and 100% of the allocated funds for the year have been exhausted with 5 months of the year still remaining. “This is despite this excuse of shortage of funds being a gross violation of the law...” the petition states.
The plea by Swaraj Abhiyan says that the real demand for work from registered job cardholders is not accurately registered in the system, denying the job card holders their statutory right to employment or failing which ‘unemployment allowance’. It seeks urgent directions to redress this situation and provide relief to lakhs of rural poor.
The petitioner also seeks urgent directions from this court to provide 50 ‘additional days of employment’ under the Act to each household and to accurately allow registration of demand for work directly on the official website.
The petition talks about the Preamble and the Act provides guaranteed wage employment of at least 100 days for every rural household. It says that this is the most important provision to be fulfilled.
“It allows households facing distress due to unemployment, underemployment, or other economic hardships to get at least 100 days of work at the wage rate stipulated by the Government, and use the wage for survival and basic income security,” it said,
The plea notes that achievement of these objectives is dependent on work being provided as per the law.
“If work is not provided as per the guarantee, all the other aspects of this comprehensive social safety net fail to be realized. The social safety net falls flat if the job cardholders are unable to exercise their statutory right to apply for and get work on demand,” it is argued.
The petition contends that the value of the scheme increases exponentially during times of calamities and disasters, and therefore it is even more important in such times that the workers can secure their entitlements under the law seamlessly.
"In fact, the MGNREGA makes special provisions for additional days of employment to be provided in times of disaster and calamity,” it added.