Under this law people of any village can ask for employment according to simple procedures described in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and employment must be provided to them within a fixed period.

The guarantee aspect is supposed to be ensured by an additional provision in the law that if employment is not provided within the stipulated period, then a compensatory payment will be made to all those workers who had demanded employment. However this was watered down by the authorities by shrewdly adding that such payment will be provided subject of availability of funds.

On the whole the compensatory aspect has been implemented only very rarely, and this is how the guarantee aspect of the pioneering legislation has been weakened.

Hence it was particularly courageous on the part of the women workers from poor households in a very remote village Dhok (located in the desert district of Barmer in Rajasthan) to stand up with determination for their right to get the compensatory payment.

As they had demanded work using the proper legal procedure but did not get employment, they showed a lot of determination in raising the demand for compensation. When they did not get the payment, helped by a ‘mahila sangathan’ ( women’s rights organization) activist Anita Soni  they formed a group and came to the block office to meet the concerned officials.

The officials stated that they will consider their demand sympathetically. The women asserted with firmness that if their demand is accepted by officials here they will be thankful to them, but if the demand is not accepted then they are prepared to go right up to the state capital city of Jaipur to ensure that the demand for compensatory payment is accepted.

What has been seen recently in Barmer is a reflection of much wider problems in the implementation of NREGA. The budgetary allocation for NREGA is much less than the real need to fulfil the guarantee part of the law. Further its implementation is marred by widespread corruption. Systems of transparency and social audits which could have helped to reduce corruption have not been implemented properly.

On the other hand arbitrary actions brought the much needed law to a standstill in the state of W. Bengal for several months. In many states the NREGA wage rate is lower than the agricultural wage rate, and needs to be increased significantly. Procedures like ABPS and NNMS introduced as reforms have complicated the scheme and made it difficult for several workers to access this.

Several activists who have been trying to improve the working of this scheme at the grassroots assembled at a national convention and raised several of these demands. Such efforts are increasing in the context of several states like Jharkhand, W. Bengal and Rajasthan and the government should take overdue steps at the national level to ensure that the NREGA is able to live up to its rich potential and the expectations of people.

Apart from helping the weaker sections a lot, NREGA can also make an important contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

*Honorary convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. Books: “Man over Machine”, “Protecting Earth for Children”, “India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food”  

Courtesy: CounterView

The post Authorities’ shrewd caveat? NREGA payment ‘subject to funds availability’: Barmer women protest appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This collective action follows the Central Government’s suspension of NREGA funding for the state in December 2021, citing Section 27 of the Act. This decision has resulted in a complete halt to NREGA projects and has left workers without wages for nearly three years.

As part of a nationwide postcard campaign orchestrated by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, workers from various states have not only penned letters to the Prime Minister but also contributed one rupee each towards West Bengal’s NREGA budget.

The postcards directed to PM Modi carry a clear and assertive message: “If the Union Government cannot allocate the NREGA budget for West Bengal, we, the workers of India, will fund it ourselves. We demand an immediate resumption of NREGA work in West Bengal.”

On August 5, 2024, a 15-member delegation representing various worker unions met with Shailesh Kumar, Secretary for Rural Development, advocating for the urgent release of funds and the renewal of NREGA work in West Bengal.

The delegation voiced concern that, despite the more than two-and-a-half year freeze, there has been no substantial investigation into the alleged irregularities that prompted the suspension, nor has accountability been established for the ongoing disruption.

Worker representatives have also engaged with key political figures, including Members of Parliament like Dr. V. Sivadasan and Amra Ram, pressing them to address the issue in Parliament.

The situation for workers has been dire, marked by forced migration, rampant hunger and malnutrition, rising suicide rates, and increasing poverty among vulnerable rural households in West Bengal, says an NREGA Sangharsh Morcha statement. Despite ongoing outreach to the Union Minister for Rural Development, workers have not yet secured a meeting, deepening their frustration amidst a backdrop of alleged administrative irregularities and governmental inaction.

In response to the escalating crisis, the Calcutta High Court intervened in April 2024, establishing a four-member committee to examine the legitimacy of prior NREGA work in West Bengal, following a petition from Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity (W.P.A. (P) 237 of 2023).

According to NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, while the court’s establishment of an investigative committee is a positive step, it should not come at the expense of the rights of millions of workers unfairly denied their right to work. The suspension effectively penalizes innocent workers for past alleged irregularities.

In September 2024 alone, over 3,500 demand applications for work were recorded in West Bengal, highlighting the urgent need to resume NREGA activities it added. However, the Central Government’s failure to release funds has meant that these demands are being addressed through a state-sponsored employment programme, ‘Karmashree.’

On September 23, 2024, around 100 NREGA workers, led by the Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity, staged a ‘Gherao’ demonstration at the BJP state headquarters in Kolkata. Although no senior officials attended the protest, the office assured attendees that their concerns would be addressed at an upcoming BJP state committee meeting. This protest in Kolkata is part of a wider mobilization across the nation.

On Sunday, September 28, 2024, hundreds of NREGA workers from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha will converge in Ranchi for a mass protest, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha declared. Gathering at Raj Bhawan at 11 am, these workers aim to demand the Centre reverse its anti-labour, anti-poor policies and uphold the true intent of MGNREGA.

Courtesy: CounterView

The post Thousands of NREGA workers urge Modi to resume work in West Bengal, contribute to State Budget appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Phool Kumari from Katihar in Bihar gave the instance of her her village, where 76 people demanded work, but hardly 7 got work. Bholu Pando and Sevak Lakra from Chhattisgarh said that the introduction of NREGA brought revolutionary changes in their lives, but due to continuous budget cuts and the introduction of digital attendance, it is becoming very difficult to work under NREGA.

The Jan Sunwai (public hearing) on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), where NREGA workers from various non-party trade unions and mass organisations from Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh participated, saw Congress leaders and Jairam Ramesh and Kanhaiya Kumar as chief guests accusing the Government of India of creating unnecessary technical complexity into NREGA in the name of transparency.

Others participating in the event were Rameshwar Oraon, Alamgir Alam , Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan leder Nikhil Dey, “Chaupal” editor Gangaram and James Herenj and Balram from the Jharkhand NREGA Watch.

Kanhaiya Kumar said that this country was built by the workers and without workers the country will not prosper. He added that, if the current Union government can waive off the loan of capitalists amounting to Rs 14 lakh crores, then it should also guarantee the rightful work and wages of crores of NREGA workers.

Senior leader and former Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam said that the Jharkhand State Government wrote several letters to the Union Government questioning the logic in paying NREGA workers less than the statutory agricultural wage rate and promised that the State would put pressure on the Union Government to withdraw digital attendance.

Jairam Ramesh recalled the struggle behind the NREGA Act and outlined its objectives, adding that the current Union Government is bringing unnecessary technical complexity into NREGA in the name of transparency, which is in violation of the people’s right to work. He stressed that the main objective of the Union Government is to end NREGA.

He also suggested that after Rajasthan, Jharkhand could be the second state where urban employment guarantee should be implemented. He urged that it is the duty of public representatives to participate in such public hearings and take collective decisions, keeping in mind the ground reality.

Economist Jean Dreze, while showing a fish from the pond built by NREGA workers, said that NREGA is an investment that has brought prosperity among the rural poor. On behalf of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and Jharkhand NREGA Watch, Gangaram Paikra, Balram and James Herenj presented a Charter of Demands:

Guarantee 100 days work per adult (vyask) person in a family.

NREGA wage rate should be Rs 800.

Pressure should be put on the central government to pay wages within 15 days as per NREGA law.

The Union Government should follow the order of the Supreme Court in the Swaraj Abhiyan case and pay the pending compensation.

Do not make Aadhar Based Payment System (ABPS) mandatory for payments.

Digital attendance in NREGA should be stopped immediately.

Adequate budget should be allocated for social audit and the autonomy of the social audit department should be maintained. In the social audit of every work, it should be done as per the rules of CAG, keeping all the information before the Gram Sabha.

In the name of Section 27 of the NREGA Act, the injustice being done to NREGA workers of West Bengal should be stopped. Section 27 should be amended so that such injustice does not happen to other states.

There is a provision of unemployment allowance in the NREGA Act if work is not found within 15 days, but it is not followed. The central government should take responsibility that the workers get unemployment allowance.

Every person in every family should get 100 days of work in a year.

For the empowerment of the Gram Sabha, it is necessary that the decisions of the Gram Sabha be given priority in the determination and implementation of schemes.

Urban Employment Guarantee Act should be brought in the entire country so that every hand actually gets work and gets full wages for the work.

Courtesy: CounterView

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Is implementation of NREGA (national rural employment guarantee legislation) being fundamentally altered to the extent that instead of being a deliverable for regular rural work, the law becomes a source of exploitation?

This and other disturbing questions were raised at a press conference organized in Delhi on March 3 by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (a collective which has been monitoring NREGA implementation carefully for some years and also campaigning for its proper, improved implementation.

This press conference was part of a wider mobilisation to demand significant improvements, as reflected in a protest dharna at Jantar Mantar, Delhi. While several national level injustices have been highlighted in the course of this protest, a special focus has been on the extreme injustices suffered by NREGA workers in West Bengal.

As the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha has pointed out, most NREGA workers in West Bengal have not been paid their wages for over one year. According to the Morcha, the union government has withheld the release of over Rs. 7500 crore worth of NREGA funds out of which pending wages amounting to Rs 2762 crore have not been paid to nearly 3.4 crore registered workers from the state. This is for work already completed by them (one crore=10 million people ). In addition,  there was a near shutdown of NREGA work in the state for financial year 2022-23.

According to news reports, the union government authorities held back funds after discovering anomalies in the implementation of NREGA in this state. However, as was repeatedly emphasised in the press conference and at the protest dharna, when corruption is discovered, the response should be to punish the corrupt persons concerned and not to victimise innocent workers.

A wider, national level aspect of implementation which came in for repeated criticism at the press conference and at the dharna relates to the mandatory imposition of a centralized digital attendance system (NNMS) and Aadhaar based payments that has “caused havoc”. Many workers cannot be paid in time due to technical problems related to the NNMS App for no fault of theirs.

Brinda Karat, former Rajya Sabha member and CPMleader said that the big reduction in NREGA budget this year, the huge numbers of workers who demand work but are denied work, extremely low average wages of around Rs 218 per day as well as the fact of nearly 20 states being in deficit due to spending being higher than allocation received from the central government have led to serious questions regarding the future of NREGA. The union government has been very unfavorable towards NREGA as well as other pro-poor laws like the Forest Rights Act, 2006 Karat also said.

Anjali Bhardwaj, a senior social activist, stated that most of the weaker sections have continued to suffer from a worsening livelihood situation and inflation in the post-pandemic phase and therefore the weakening of important pro-poor schemes like rural employment guarantee is a cause for very serious concern. She called for genuine, comprehensive anti-corruption steps, while avoiding the imposition of more difficulties on the poor in the name of checking irregularities, as has been seen in the context of NREGA.

Rajiv Dimri, senior trade union leader (AICCTU), said that while the assault on NREGA is very regrettable, there is also a much wider assault on the entire working class and the central trade unions are preparing to resist this in various ways.

Several NREGA workers from West Bengal stated how they have been denied wages after toiling for up to 90 days at NREGA sites , and this as well as loss of work opportunities has led to hunger and starvation in their households.

The various speakers extended their support to the demands raised by the ongoing protest movement and dharna. These demands include—

• Immediate payment of the pending wages by the central government,

• immediate release of the withheld funds by the central government,

• Establishment of a revolving fund of Rs 1000 crore by the state government  for timely payment of NREGA wages,

• Checking irregularities in implementation of NREGA ad action against all those who are complicit in these.

(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Man over Machine and Planet in Peril)

Related:

West Bengal farm workers protest Centre withholding Rs 7,500 crore MGNREGA budget

With Demand for MGNREGA Work Increasing in Sept 2022, Activists Warn About Rural Distress

The post Strong voices raised to check exploitation of NREGA workers by union government  appeared first on SabrangIndia.

One of the most widely discussed rural initiatives from India has been the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) which provides a guarantee of employment in various tasks of rural development. While it can provide very genuine benefits to workers and peasants while carrying out highly useful tasks ( like water conservation), in practice its implementation has been increasingly marred by less than adequate budget allocation resulting in availability of much less than legally assured employment, low wages and long delays in payment of these wages.

During September 21-23 several demonstrations, rallies and public meetings involving NREGA workers and their organizations are being held in various parts of India. This mobilization is taking place on the basis of a call given by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, (NSM) , a collective that works with NREGA workers across the country. According to the NSM around Rs. 2800 crore ( one crore=10 million) are pending from the central government for this financial year and Rs. 1984  crore from the previous financial year. The budget allocation was so inadequate that nearly 77% got spent in the first five months of the financial year.

NREGA workers have suffered much due to long delays in getting wages which go against legal provisions. Following the 3-day protests the NSM will be submitting a memorandum to the government for important reforms at implementation levels.

NREGA enacted about 16 years back was widely regarded as a very important achievement of the UPA/Congress government. At a time of the state withdrawing from such responsibilities in many countries, this was seen internationally too as a very important initiative, particularly in the Global South.

The initial response of the NDA/BJP regime towards NREGA was discouraging, but better counsel prevailed and realizing its importance this was continued. During COVID its importance was particularly acknowledged by almost everyone in terms of its ability to provide an important means of survival in very difficult times when so many migrant workers were returning to villages in desperate conditions. Increased allocation for NREGA became a very important component of the special COVID package announced by the government in financial year 2020-21.

As a result the NREGA allocation peaked to Rs. 111,000 crore this year. There was demand as well as expectation that the increased 2020-21 allocation will be retained but this was reduced to just Rs. 73,000 crore. As anticipated, this led to extreme problems of unmet demand and delayed wages, causing much distress.

So later in the year the government had to allocate additional Rs. 25,000 crore, taking the total allocation to Rs. 98,000 crore in 2021-22 Thus even the increased or revised allocation this year was lower than the amount spent in the previous year, while the delay in increasing the allocation led to avoidable problems of delayed wages. At the end of the financial year substantial dues of wages, or material payments or administrative expenses remained.

This year at the time of the presentation of budget again a reduction relative to last year’s revised estimate was made by allocating only Rs. 73,000 crore. A calculation made by a monitoring group People’s Action for Employment Guarantee ( PAEG) revealed the very uncomfortable reality that if the same number of people apply for work as in the previous year , this allocation will be adequate to provide only 21 days work in a year, as compared to the legal entitlement of 100 days.

In this context it is also useful to look at the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on rural development schemes in mid-March this year. The Parliamentary Committee has mentioned that there was corruption in the implementation of NREGA as well as delays in wage payment. The Committee spoke of lesser money reaching ‘genuine’ workers due to corruption. Another problem mentioned by the Committee related to late uploading of muster rolls which also resulted in delays in wage payment. A lot of problems were related to lack of timely availability of adequate budget.

The rule-based payment system of NREGA is to make the payment within 15 days, and for any delay beyond this there is provision for adding compensatory additional payment but this is seldom given.

Clearly there is urgent need for setting up a proper system of timely wages in NREGA and for ensuring a proper budget for this.

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Man over Machine and India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food.

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org

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A civil society tracker, seeking to periodically analyse the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), has said that NREGA budgetary allocation is only 0.29% of GDP and 1.85% of the total government expenditure of the financial year 2022-23, which is grossly inadequate. Thus, “As per estimates of researchers of the World Bank, for NREGA to run robustly, its allocation must at least be 1.6% of the GDP.”

Prepared by the People’s Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG), a group of activists, academics and members of people’s organizations, who came together to advocate for NREGA in 2004 in order to catalyse discussion and strengthen the top Government of India rural jobs guarantee scheme, the tracker states, the NREGA budget as percentage of the total government expenditure has also decreased — it stands at 1.85% for FY 2022-23, just about half the level in FY 2020-21 (3.65%).

The tracker, titled “Meagre Funds and Unlawfully Low Wages: How the MGNREGA is Being Squeezed”, says, “The programme guarantees 100 days of employment to each household at minimum wages. Yet, the provisioning has been significantly less than required, despite soaring demand for employment in recent years.”

The tracker raises the alarm, “By July 21, 2022, the Union government has already exhausted two-thirds of its budget, with eight months remaining”, predicting, “The pending dues are expected to increase.” It adds, “Pending payments at the end of FY 2021-22 amount to 16% of the budgetary allocation for FY 2022-23. Except for the pandemic year, FY 2020-21, the pending payment has been higher than 15%.”

Pointing out that “each year, a significant proportion of the budget allocated to NREGA is used to pay for previous years’ pending liabilities, leaving the budget remaining grossly inadequate for the current financial year”, the tracker notes, “In FY 2022-23, Rs 11,464 crore has been spent as on July 31, 2022 to clear previous years’ liabilities.”

“Another worrying concern”, says the tracker, is that “the NREGA wages have not increased in tandem with inflation. When we look at the national average, we find that the percentage increase in NREGA wages was about 4.7 percentage points less than the average rural inflation rate. Only in Kerala, Karnataka and Bihar was the percentage increase in NREGA wages higher than the rural inflation rate.”

Further, the tracker notes, “NREGA wage rates remain much below the need-based national minimum wage of Rs 375 recommended by the expert committee under the chairmanship of Anoop Satpathy in early 2019. Average daily NREGA wage per personday is 13.8% less than the national average notified NREGA wage rate. While this difference is close to 0 in some states, it is about 40% in Telangana.”

The tracker asserts, “In its pre-budget statement, the PAEG warned that with the pending dues of over Rs 21,000 crore by the end of FY 2021-22, and a meagre budget of Rs 73,000 crore for FY 2022-23, the programme would be able to provide employment of only 21 days on minimum wage to each household that demanded work in FY 2021-22.”

It adds, “The immediate result of the budget shortfall is reflected in the fact that the recorded unmet demand for employment is currently as high as 20.6%. That is, one out of every five households that have demanded employment in these four months has not been provided employment.”

Asserting that it had recommended budgetary allocation of Rs 2.69 lakh crore for the programme”, the tracker insists, “The government can and must allocate this much in order to ensure those who demand work under NREGA are employed for 100 days and are paid the minimum wages for their work, as guaranteed in the Act.”

It continues, “Recently, the government reduced the corporate tax rates by 8-10% that resulted in a revenue loss of Rs 2.09 lakh crore. Despite such high levels of corporate tax cuts, corporations have not created significant employment, while they have been registering record profits year after year. The tax cuts have also not increased investment, or thereby demand.”
Meanwhile, it says, “Unemployment rates have reached record highs and demand for NREGA work is still higher than pre-pandemic levels. At present, the economy is in a downturn and employment has still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Steep levels of unemployment and inflation add further distress to an already Covid-affected rural poor.”

“In such a situation”, the tracker believes, “NREGA becomes a crucial safeguard that ensures that poor workers can have at least some minimal incomes and security, by guaranteeing them the right to work. The Act specifies that up to the limit of 100 days of work per household, the actual employment provided must be driven by the demand for work, and not constrained by prior budgetary allocations.”

The tracker accuses the Government of India for “constantly allocating inadequate funding for NREGA” and “not providing funds as required by states”, which is in contravention of “both the letter and the spirit of the Act…” The result is, “In addition, by illegally fixing low wage rates, and not paying even these low wages fully, it has also slowly eroded workers’ interest in the Act. If the current trend continues, it will not be long before the Act becomes a hollow shell.”

Courtesy: Counterview

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The well constructed by Lakhan
 

Calling it a “major administrative failure”, as Lakhan was “literally forced to take risky loans while the government has the responsibility to make all payments under MGNREGA and the beneficiaries are not supposed to invest a single penny”, the report states that “28 other MGNREGA well beneficiaries are also facing similar situations.”

Text of the report:

On July 25, 2019, Lakhan Mahto, 43, a resident of Patratu village of Patratu Gram panchayat in Chanho block, jumped into a well that he himself had constructed and gave his life. He was the lone earning member of the household. While the family was dependent on cultivation, Lakhan also had to work as labourer for coping with the distress. Lakhan’s 85-year-old mother (Gujari Devi), 36-year-old wife (Vimala Devi) and three children Suraj (18 years), Neeraj (15 years) and Praveen (12 years) were the other members of the family.
 

Cause of death

Lakhan Mahto had constructed a well under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGREGA) on his land. The work code of this scheme is 3401005010/IF/7080901221509 and was sanctioned in December 2017. Lakhan had to pay for the materials as well as for the labour wages as the payments were not made on time. He had to take loans for this purpose and was hoping that the money will be soon received from the government.

However, despite a lot of efforts he could not get back the money for materials which he had already invested. This resulted in a lot of stress and soon, Lakhan was under great psychological trauma and depression.

On the day of the tragedy, Lakhan woke up at around 4’o clock in the morning and went to the nearby farm where he had the well, constructed. When he did not return for a long time, people went in search for him and found him dead inside the well.
 

Lakhan’s wife

Administration’s negligence

Lakhan’s wife, Vimla Devi, said that her husband had to borrow a total Rs 1.70 Lakh from three of his relatives between January and February 2018 for completion of the well, but he could not repay the loan even after 14 months as wages and material payments were not released to the concerned labourers and vendors in their bank accounts, by the government.

It is a major administrative failure that Lakhan was literally forced to take risky loans while the government has the responsibility to make all payments under MGNREGA and the beneficiaries are not supposed to invest a single penny.

Further, it is important to understand that Lakhan had to pay to the labourers at a local rate which is much higher than the then MGNREGA wage rate of Rs 168 per day. The block administration could not ensure a timely material supply to the worksite which compelled him to take loan from others for procuring the materials in order to complete the scheme.

Lakhan, for the last 13 months, had been regularly visiting the block office, hoping for re-imbursement of the outstanding amount of Rs 1,18,545 from the government for the wages and material payments. Apart from Lakhan Mahto, in Patratu Panchayat, 28 other MGNREGA well beneficiaries are also facing similar situations.
 

Present situation

Even after five days of this tragic event, the government has neither offered a single benefit or compensation to the family and nor had paid the outstanding money which led to the tragic death of Lakhan Mahto. The mother of Lakhan, Gujri Devi, an 85-year-old elderly lady, did not get the benefit of old age pension under the central pension scheme despite being eligible for the benefit. 
 

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State-owned telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has failed to pay the February salaries to around 1.76 lakh employees due to its financial crisis. This is the first time the company has defaulted in payment of its monthly salaries. The fully government-owned corporation is undergoing a major cash crunch due to the price war with private companies.
 
The salary for the month of February has been delayed by 10 days.
 
“The company usually pays its employees on the last working day of the month or the first working day of the next. While BSNL continues its enviable market share, such a crisis has befallen the operator for the first time. While telecom prices have been reduced drastically, mostly after the entry of Reliance Jio, BSNL continues to operate with its large staff as compared to lean numbers employed by rivals,” Business Today reported.
 
According to a report in Times of India, salary due for a circle the size of Maharashtra runs up to more than Rs 60 crore. With at least 20 circles in the country, BSNL’s salary bill per month is estimated to be around Rs 1,200 crore. According to reports around 55% of BSNL’s revenues go in footing the monthly wages. The wage bill continues to increase annually by 8% but the revenues are stagnant.
 
State-owned telecom firm BSNL, which has been in the red for more than five years.
 
The employees’ union has written to telecom minister Manoj Sinha urging that the government release funds to the company to pay the salaries as well as revive the ailing firm. The employees have also been holding demonstrations.
 
“Around 55% of BSNL’s revenues goes towards payment of wages, and while the company’s wage bill increases annually by 8%, its revenues are stagnant. The associations and unions of BSNL have also said that the financial health of the telecom industry has suffered because of the predatory pricing of Reliance Jio. “Financial crisis is being faced by other operators also but they are managing the situation by infusing huge amounts,” a letter by All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB) to Sinha said, a report by Financial Express said.
 
A BSNL official told Financial Express that the company has started paying February salaries now to staff in Kerala, J&K, Odisha and the corporate office. “As and when the income is generated, salaries will be paid to the staff. As the government has not given any financial support, the salaries are being delayed,” the official said.
 
The source further said even March salaries will be delayed by a few days despite the fact that cash flows in the month are usually higher because of billing from the enterprise business. Another source told FE that the BSNL board has approved a proposal to avail bank loan but the department of telecommunications has not given the go-ahead yet.
 
The losses of BSNL has been increasing every year. It reported a loss of around 8,000 crore for FY18, compared to 4,786 crore in FY17. For FY19 also, the loss is expected to be higher than 8,000 crore.
 
Under the Modi government, wages have not been given for various government projects.
 
No payment for Sardar Patel Statue of Unity workers
“Sardar Patel was one of the tallest leaders of the freedom struggle leading peasants to fight for fair remuneration and taxation by the British governments. It is ironic that the workers guarding his statue, the world’s tallest, have to resort to strike in order to get their wage dues from the Indian government,” The Wire reported.
 
Labourers who worked on the Sardar Patel Statue of Unity project have not received their wages for the last three months.
 
News reports suggest that over 100 workers of one of the contractors, entrusted with maintaining and operating the services at the Statue of Unity complex, have gone on strike demanding wage dues for the past three months. This has prompted the worker to go on strike and protest by forming a human chain.
 
NREGA workers file FIRs against Modi over non-payment of wages
Thousands of MGNREGA workers across the country attempted to lodge FIRs against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 28 for ‘making false promises’ and ‘cheating’ workers by not paying wages on time. The coordinated attempt was made in 150 police stations in nine states across the country.
 
The workers argue that by not providing adequate work and delaying wages, the government of India had violated the law. And Modi, as the head of the government, is the ‘principal violator’. Thus, the workers demanded, that Modi be booked under Sections 116 (Abetment of offence) and 420 (Cheating and dishonesty) of the Indian Penal code.
 
According to the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, in the last five years, the employment guarantee scheme has been ‘deliberately undermined’. The organisation has argued that the government has allocated insufficient funds, not met the demand for additional funds on time, delayed wage payments and suppressed work demand.
 
In February, after the Union Budget was announced, The Wire highlighted that the allocation for MGNREGA for 2019-20 was, in fact, lower than that for 2018-19. In January, The Wire reported that 99% of the funds allocated for MGNREGA were exhausted with three months to go for the end of the financial year. Subsequently, the Centre allocated an additional Rs 6,084 crore that took the total allocation to Rs 61,084 crore. In the 2018 Budget, the government had allocated Rs 55,000 crore to the rural employment scheme. By announcing an allocation of Rs 60,000 crore for the financial year 2019-20, the government, in fact, reduced the funds set for MGNREGA.
 
Modi governments ad expenditure
In four years, Modi government spend more than Rs.4300 crores on publicity according to an RTI query. 
 
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its supporters accounted for a lion’s share of political advertising worth over Rs. 4 crore on Facebook, according to data compiled by the social media giant.
 
The advertisements run for the ruling dispensation range from promotion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government policies to those of its leaders, including BJP President Amit Shah — all of which were not necessarily paid by the party but by its supporters.
 
From February till March 2, 2019, the social media giant showed 16,556 ads related to politics and issues of national importance with ad spends crossing more than Rs 4.13 crore, according to Facebook’s Ad Archive Report.
 
The specific date on which Facebook started collecting data was not disclosed. However, on February 7, it had said the enforcement of the new features and the political advertisements policy, that includes having disclaimers, would start from February 21.

According to the data accessed by India Today TV, ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ — an unverified page on Facebook that asks users to give feedback to the prime minister — is the top spender on political ads. The page had spent more than Rs 1.2 crore on its 1,556 ads averaging to roughly Rs 7,700 per ad. The pro-Narendra Modi page has 3,00,000 followers on the social media platform and was founded on January 27 this year. ‘Nation with NaMo’, another Modi fan page that has over 1.1 million followers on Facebook, stood second on the list. The page had spent more than Rs 64 lakh on its 1,074 ads averaging to around Rs 6,000 per ad.

Is this where the labourer’s money went?

The post The workers at BSNL, NREGA and Statue of Unity have not been paid their wages in Modi’s India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
It was Swaraj Abhiyan that had approached the court in 2015 with the issues of (1) squeezing funds to the program via reduction in labour allotment through “approved labour budget” (2) delays in payment of wages and compensation thereof, and (3) absence of social audits.
 
Sanction to the process of “approving” labour budgets
The Court has rejected the petitioner’s submission on how the Central government has insiduously curbing labour demand.
 
The petitioners had meticulously documented how the central government was using the “agreed to labour budget” as an arbitrary means of curbing work demand. The petitioner had argued that the exercise of “approving” labour budgets goes against the very spirit of the law/Act.
 
In fact, the National Electronic Funds Management System (Ne-FMS) guidelines issued by the Centre in 2016-17 say that “the Management Information System (MIS) “will not allow” States to “generate more employment above the limits set by Agreed to LB”. This meant that the work demand of workers were not even getting registered and the MIS was being used as a means to curb work demand. Because of the ongoing PIL, the Centre was forced to rescind guidelines that enabled the use of the MIS to constrict demand for work. The Act has no provision of either the states or the central government to ration the projected demand for work prepared by each state.
 
The Central Government had argued that as some states are unable to fully utilise their labour budget, there is a need to rationalise the funds allocated to them. In doing so, it deliberately failed to acknowledge that the labour budget is only an estimate of the projected demand for work in the forthcoming financial year.
 

• First, it is impossible for anyone to accurately predict the demand for NREGA work, as it depends on various factors such as availability of alternative employment, wage revisions and crop yield.
• Second, early throttling of funds through “approved labour budget” causes the field functionaries to use it as a central order to not register work of labourers.
• Third, the inability of states to spend the entire funds allocated to them does not cause any loss to the public exchequer, as allocations for the subsequent year are based on the balance money available to states.
• Finally, from a moral standpoint, it’s unfair to make the most vulnerable wait for funds to trickle in to get work instead of getting work proactively.

 
Refusal to accept rationing of funds
Even as the Court gave some sanctity to the illegal exercise of “approving” labour budgets, it has rejected the petitioner’s submission on an informal cap on release of funds. It reasoned that since many states have spent more than the “agreed to labour budget”, there was, in fact, no rationing of funds. This goes completely against the facts on record.
 
The Court did not note that in August 2017, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) demanded a supplementary budget of Rs 17,000 crores, but the Ministry of Finance sanctioned only Rs 7,000 in January 2018. Thus, NREGA functioned with a shortfall of at least Rs 10,000 crores in 2017-18. Also, due to shortage of funds in 2016-17, senior MoRD officials instructed state governments to go slow in the generation of employment during monsoon. The Central Government’s practice of stopping funds to states in case of financial irregularities by the latter is also a tactic of rationing funds. The Central Government should initiate strict disciplinary action against such states, instead of unfairly penalising NREGA workers.
 
Also, the Court’s argument that the allocated NREGA budget is adequate as no state has demanded additional funds is based on the naïve assumption that state governments always function in the best interest of rural workers. The approved labour budget becomes the target for the states to meet in terms of employment generation. Such a target driven approach is at odds with the demand driven, worker centric Act, causing a natural truncation of budgets sought and allocated.
 
Order on timely payment of wages and compensation
The petitioners brought to the notice of the Court that workers are only compensated for delays in wage payments that arise due to delays by the states and not for those caused by the Central Government or the payment agency. The Court accepted this submission and instructed the Central Government to “prepare an urgent time bound mandatory program to make the payment of wages and compensation to the workers”.
 
(As the Central Government has absolved itself of any obligation towards mitigating wage delays, it is a matter of little surprise that in 2016-17, only 17% of wage payments and in 2017-18 only 43% of wage payments were processed on time in stage II – which is the responsibility of the Central Government and payment agencies.)
 
The Struggle Will Go On
 
Notwithstanding the acute disappointment in this judgement, both the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and PAEG have appreciated the strong language of the Court in its direction to the Centre to pay wages on time. However, it is unclear how this direction will translate into tangible action items for the Centre to do so on time. The Morcha and PAEG are particularly critical on two aspects of the judgement in this regard:
 
(1) Not setting up explicit orders to clear the pending delay compensation in a time bound manner is distressing.
(2) Not explicitly apportioning accountability structures on the Centre for delays in funds release to the states.
 
The Morcha and PAEG are also disappointed by the failure of the Court to take cognisance of the brazen violations of its earlier orders in this case. On May 13, 2016, the court had ordered the government to release adequate funds for timely payment of wages, pay compensation to workers who receive their wages with delays, increase the scale of employment and ensure the effective functioning of state and central employment guarantee councils.
 
The Morcha and PAEG will continue to bring to light the gross violations of the legal entitlements of NREGA workers. They will now go to Court to challenge the illegality of paying NREGA workers less than the statutory minimum wage – currently, NREGA wages of as many as 27 states and Union Territories are less than the corresponding minimum wage.
 
(It is the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and PAEG that have prepared this critical note on the judgement)
 
 
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3. Judiciary to the Rescue of Parched India: SC Guidelines on Drought

The post The SC is Naive Assuming that the Govt Protects Rural Workers: NREGA PIL appeared first on SabrangIndia.

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