Ambarish Soren, 42, has travelled to the national capital from Bengal’s Purulia district to demand ₹5,000 in unpaid wages under the MGNREGA scheme.

Soren is among several workers of the rural job scheme across the country who are scheduled to hold a two-day protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar from Thursday against the failure to release grants to Bengal, delayed wage payment to workers in other states and the involvement of contractors in the execution of the scheme.

The Union rural development ministry has stopped releasing funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to Bengal since December 2021, citing irregularities in the implementation of the scheme that provides up to 100 days of unskilled work to every rural family in a year.

At a media conference here, Soren said his village, Vindukocha under Puncha block in Purulia, had been witnessing migration of workers to other states.

“Usually some young people migrate to other states for work. But after December 2021, male members from almost all families have migrated to Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. If some mishap happens, there are no men in the village to handle the crisis,” Soren said.

“The MGNREGA was the lifeline for many families. A job cardholder was getting around seven days of work in a month. It was a great support. Now there is no work. I work as a daily labourer. But I do not get work in my village during monsoon and summer,”
he said.

Soren demanded that the Centre start releasing funds to the state.

Jeetendra Paswan, an MGNREGA worker from Chitauria village in Katihar district of Bihar, said the scheme provided for payment of wages within 15 days from the completion of work but it took more than a month for workers to get their dues. He said per-day wages ranged between ₹237 in Uttar Pradesh and ₹374 in Haryana. However, the amount was less than the minimum wage fixed by most of the state governments, he said.

Economist Jean Dreze said the allocation of funds under the MGNREGA was always much less than what was required, resulting in delayed payment. He countered rural development minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s statement that 99 per cent of the wages were paid on time.

“The MGNREGA is a revolutionary scheme. However, it has been gradually weakened due to poor allocation of funds and the involvement of contractors who resort to corrupt practices. Because of the lack of funds, most workers get paid after the stipulated period of 15 days. The fund transfer orders are generated on time but it is taking longer to credit the amount to the bank accounts of the workers,” he said.