(a) whether most of the migrant labour earlier working in urban areas in different regions of the country are now held up in their villages due to still prevailing pandemic conditions;
(b) whether to cope up with solving the mounting unemployment in rural areas, the Government would revive the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) with infusion of more funds; and
(c) whether the Government is monitoring timely payment of wages to MGNREGS workers in all States?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(SADHVI NIRANJAN JYOTI)
(a): As per information shared by the Ministry of Labour & Employment during Nation-wide lockdown amidst Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, more than 1.14 crore inter-State migrant workers returned to their home most of the migrant workers have returned to their workplaces and engaged themselves in gainful employment.
(b): Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment programme which provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
The financial allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi NREG Scheme is Rs.73,000 crore at Budget Estimate stage in the current financial year 2021-22 which is 18.69 % more than Budget Estimate of previous financial year 2020-21. The Ministry has released Rs. 46,705.24 crore during the current financial year 2021-22 (as on 06.08.2021) to States/UTs for the implementation of the Scheme.
Further Government of India is committed to making funds available to States/UTs for the implementation of the Scheme. The Ministry seeks additional fund for Mahatma Gandhi NREGS as and when required for meeting the demand for work on the ground.
(c): A multipronged strategy is followed by the Ministry to reduce the delay in payment of wages to the MGNREGA workers viz., timely release of funds by the Ministry, payment through National Electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) for direct payment of wages into workers account, guidelines for monitoring of timely payment and enabling appropriate provisions in NREGASoft to monitor timely payment of wages.
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