No publicising MGNREGS rate revision for gains: EC

The Election Commission barred political parties from reaping political dividends of the revision in the wages for beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

The EC allowed the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) of the Union government to go ahead with the annual revision of the wages for the MGNREGS beneficiaries but prohibited any publicity about it.

“Absolutely no publicity in this regard shall be made in electronic, print, radio, internet or any other media, in any form, whatsoever. No political functionary shall make any reference in this regard during any public speech or communication to the press or public,” the EC said in a communiqué to the Union MoRD.

The Model Code of Conduct came into force on March 10, the day the EC announced the schedule of the Lok Sabha polls as well as the elections to the Legislative Assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim.

The poll-panel stated that the prohibition it imposed on the publicity of the MGNREGS wage revision would be applicable to the central government as well as the state governments concerned.