Rs 900 crore due as wages under MGNREGS

A sum of Rs 900 crore remains unpaid as wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the State.

T Venkatesh, Joint Director, Programme Implementation, MGNREGS, said here on Tuesday that the Union government had locked the Management Information System of the scheme as several irregularities surfaced in implementation. The details of a majority of projects taken up under the MGNREGS in 2009-10 were not fed  into MIS in several districts and hence the wages could not be paid.

He said a meeting had been held with the Union government officials in connection with clearing the arrears of wages. “We are permitted to launch a special drive to feed project details in to MIS in February. The arrears of wages will also be fed into the system at that time,” he said.

The officers said the quantum of wage was the principal reason for the failure of MGNREGS at several places. Workers do not evince any interest in the scheme due to low wage. He said none had so far lodged a complaint alleging non-payment of wages.

Venkatesh disclosed that earlier restriction on inter-taluk transfer of funds had been lifted. Cases had been registered against a total of 612 officers till now for irregularities in the scheme, he added.