MNREGA workers to get more wages

NEW DELHI: MNREGA workers will now get more money with the Centre revising their wages from April 1 under which the maximum daily wage of Rs 214 has been fixed for Haryana while Bihar, Sikkim, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh will get the minimum of Rs 135.

In a statement in the Rajya Sabha, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh specified the wage rate payable to unskilled manual workers working in various schemes under MNREGA Act.

The notification regarding revising MNREGA wage rates is linked to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPIAL) from April 1 every year.

In March 2011, after inter-ministerial consultations, the government had decided that the revision of MNREGA wage rates indexed to the CPIAL would be done annually and thereafter it was decided that this revision would become effective from April 1 each year.

As per the recent wage revision, MNREGA workers will be paid Rs 214 in Haryana followed by Rs 210 and Rs 209 in the Union Territories of Andaman Nicobar and Chandigarh respectively.

While workers in Andaman district will get Rs 198 per day, those in Nicobar district will get Rs 210.

On the lower side of the wage payment are states like Sikkim, Bihar, Tripura, Nagaland, where MNREGA workers will Rs 135 per day. In the tribal state of Jharkhand it is fixed at Rs 138.