The Centre has released Rs 4,431 crore to clear pending wages under the rural job scheme MGNREGA and will pay all dues by 10 April, officials said on Friday, 27 March, a day after the government announced increase in wages under the programme.
The announcement was made at a time a countrywide lockdown to combat the coronavirus outbreak has left wage labourers with no work and financial resources.
The government will clear all pending wages under the employment guarantee scheme amounting to Rs 11,499 crore by 10 April, out of which Rs 4,431 crore has been released till Friday, officials said.
They said all the funds will be transferred directly into the beneficiaries' bank accounts.
Officials said the increase in wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will come into effect from 1 April. With this rise in wages, the national average wage under MGNREGA will increase to Rs 202 per person per day from Rs 182.
There are 13.62 crore job card holders under the MGNREGA, out of which 8.17 crore are active job card holders. Officials also informed that individual-oriented work under MGNREGA such as work carried out by beneficiaries belonging to SCs and STs on their own land may continue. Similarly, the work done by women who are bread-earners of their families on their own land may also continue during the lockdown. But all other MGNREGA works have been stopped due to the threat of coronavirus.
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