Question : Households Registered under MGNREGS

(a) the number of households that have registered for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) since 2014, year-wise and State-wise including Kerala;

(b) the number of households provided work under the MGNREGS since 2014,year-wise and State-wise including the State of Kerala;

(c) whether the Government is aware of instances where work was not provided to people who have registered for work, if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(d) whether there have been any complaints about delayed wage payment and if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the steps taken by the Government to ensure that wages owed to MGNREGS workers are paid on time?

MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a)&(b): As per the information uploaded by the States/UTs in Management Information System (MIS), States/UTs-wise including Kerala, details of employment demand registered by household, employment offered to household and employment provided to household since FY 2014-15 to FY 2019-20 (as on 29.11.2019) under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is at Annexure-I.

(c): Mahatma Gandhi NREGS is a demand driven wage employment programme. It provides livelihood security i.e., fall back option for livelihood for the rural households when no better employment opportunity is available. The demand for work is influenced by various factors such as rain-fall, availability of alternative and remunerative employment opportunities outside Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. The workers, who have placed demand for works, sometimes do not turn up when work is offered due to availability of better work opportunities elsewhere. However, section 7 of Mahatma Gandhi NREG Act, 2005 provides that for the workers which are not provided work within the prescribed time limit, they shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance to be paid by the respective States/UTs.

(d): As per Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), the status of delayed wage payment under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS during the last four years (from 1.04.2014 till 27.11.2019) is at Annexure-II.

(e): The Ministry along with the States/UTs has been making concerted efforts for improving the timely payment of wages. National electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) is implemented in 24 States and 1 Union Territory wherein payment of wages is being credited directly to the bank/post office accounts of MGNREGA workers by the Central Government through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). The Ministry has issued Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) on timely payment process for direct payment into the account of beneficiaries. States/ UTs have been advised to generate pay orders in time. This has resulted in considerable improvement in the status of timely generation of pay order leading to improvement in actual time taken to credit wages in the workers account. During the current Financial Year 2019-20 (as on 27.11.2019), around 97% pay orders have been generated within 15 days from the date of closure of the Muster Roll.