Government may raise workdays under MNREGA to 150 days

New Delhi: With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the government is planning to raise the workdays under its ambitious rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA from 100 to 150 days per year.

A proposal in this regard will be considered by the Union Cabinet on Friday, sources said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The populist measure is clearly aimed at wooing the rural voters which comprises about 60 per cent of the country's population.

Under the MNREGA programme, one member of each rural family is entitled to 100 days of work per year with remuneration of Rs 100 plus amount linked to Consumer Price

Index (CPI).

The flagship programme has generated 23040 lakh persondays of work in 2012-13.

Initially, the remuneration was Rs 100 and it was linked to inflation about two years back after demands that it should be enhanced keeping in view the price rise.

The MNREGA programme was unveiled just before the last Lok Sabha elections, which benefitted Congress electorally.

In the recent years, there have been demands that payments under MNGREGA should be at par with the wages paid under the Minimum Wages Act, which vary from state to state.

The government had made it clear that this could not be done as it would require amendments to the MNREGA Act. However, it linked the remunerations to inflation.

The MNREGA scheme, in which half of the beneficiaries are women, roughly reaches to every fifth household in the rural areas.

The scheme is in operation in 632 districts in the country, according to official data.

In 2012-13, it provided employment to more than 4.8 crore households generating more than 213 crore person days of employment at a total expenditure of more than 39,000 crore.

The average wage rate per day has gone up to Rs 128 crore in 2012-13 from Rs 65 in 2006-07.

The objective of MGNREGA is aimed at enhancing livelihood security of the rural households for creating durable assets.

The focus of the scheme is on water conservation, water harvesting, drought proofing, land development, flood control and rural connectivity among others. The scope of the scheme has also been extended from time to time.