Punjab Congress demands release of MGNREGA wages

Chandigarh: The Congress on Tuesday demanded release of the pending wages of the labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which are pending for the last three months.

AICC Secretary in charge for internal communications, Vineet Punia, said in Haryana MGNREGA scheme is short of Rs 181.22 crore.

He said while works of Rs 374 crore have already been completed and the funds availability was only Rs 193.21 crore, which indicates the scarcity of funds and a huge gap between the demand and supply.

He pointed out this is the situation in the seventh month of the financial year and what will happen in another five months.

He said of the 100 mandatory work days that people should get under this scheme, but they have only got 24 days of work.

He said this was less than the previous year when they got 31 days, which again was far less than the 100 mandatory days.

Punia observed that the delay in paying the wages and reducing the workdays consistently every year, appeared to be deliberate as the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state want to abolish the welfare scheme.

He said the labourers were desperately waiting for their wages when the Diwali festival was only a few days away.