Mandays under MGNREGA up from 275 lakh to 300 lakh

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, June 9

The Union Government has increased mandays to be provided to people in rural areas of Himachal under MGNREGA from 275 lakh to 300 lakh for the current financial year. Sources here said that owing to demand of work under MGNREGA in rural areas of Himachal, the state government had demanded from the Union Government that the number of man days of employment should be increased to 350 lakh. However, the Union Government has raised the man days to be provided in the state under MGNREGA from 275 lakh to 300 lakh days.

May be increased further

• The Director Rural Development and Panchayats said the state government had already completed 20% target of providing employment under MNREGA for the current financial year
• In case the state meets the target of giving employment for 300 lakh mandays till January 2025, a case could be presented to the Union Government for further increase
• Last year also, the number of mandays was increased to 350 lakh mandays by the Union Government though initial sanction was 275 lakh mandays

Director Rural Development and panchayats Himachal, Raghav Sharma, said the number of mandays to be provided under MGNREGA in Himachal had been increased from 275 lakh in last financial year to 300 lakh in the current financial year. He said the state government had already completed 20 per cent target of providing employment under MNREGA for the current financial year. In case the state meets the target of giving employment for 300 lakh mandays till January 2025, a case could be presented to the Union Government for further increase in number of mandays to be provided in state. Last year also, at a later stage it was increased to 350 lakh mandays by the Union Government though initial sanction was 275 lakh man days, he said.

Recently, the present Congress government had increased MGNREGA wages in the state from Rs 240 per day to Rs 300 per day. The Union Government provides Rs 235 per day daily wage while the remaining portion has to be provided by the state government.

Raghav Sharma said from June onwards directions had been passed to respective district officials to provide daily wage of Rs 300 per day to MGNREGA workers in the state. The scheme of providing Rs 300 per day wage under MGNREGA was being implemented from April 1. The arrears of increased wages would be provided to labourers employed under MNREGA from April to June soon, he said.

Under the MGNREGA scheme, people in rural areas registered under the scheme can get employment up to 120 days in a year. Sources here said that the Union Government provides a budget of Rs 1,200 crore under MGNREGA scheme annually to Himachal, while the state government has kept a provision of about Rs 25 crore for payment of Rs 64 more to MGNREGA workers than Rs 236 daily wage by the Union Government.

MGNREGA came handy to the state government to provide employment and income to people living in rural areas of Himachal during the outbreak of Covid pandemic. The scheme was also popular in lower area of Himachal like Kangra, Chamba, Hamirpur, Una and Bilaspur districts where the landholding are small and agriculture was dependent on rainfall.