New Delhi: A Parliamentary Panel in its report tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday suggested that the Rural Development Ministry’s Aadhaar Based Payment Bridge System (ABPS) should not be made compulsory for payments under MGNREGA, according to The Siasat Daily.
The Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj also called for alternative mechanisms to operate to ensure that the primary goal of the scheme is to provide wages, which according to it should not be hampered by lack of proper implementation technology.
While recommending inflation-linked index for the payment of wages, the panel reportedly called out the government on low wages being distributed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and noted that the APBS has been made mandatory since January 1, 2024.
The panel reportedly said: ‘While accepting the gains of APBS, the Committee is of the view that it is too early to make it mandatory as the problems relating to Aadhar seeding still have not been resolved leading to exclusion of lakhs of workers’.
Adding further the panel said that wages paid under MGNREGS since 2008 have been inadequate being not in consonance with the rising cost of living.
The panel viewed that for many of the poor rural masses work they get under MGNREGA is a sort of last resort as they do not have any other means of livelihood or jobs but nominal and delayed wages could only discourage them, forcing them to migrate and seek work 'in areas giving better remuneration’.
Pointing out that the current wages for the scheme have not been revised to meet the rising cost of living, the panel urged the government to increase it considering national inflation.