Officials behind delay in MGNREGA payments to face action: Minister

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, December 14

The government will take action against officials responsible for the delay in payments to MGNREGA workers in the state. A corpus fund of Rs 100 crore has been created to ensure that MGNREGA workers get their wages in time even when there was a delay in payments from the Union Government, said Minister for Rural Development Varinder Kanwar during the question hour.

While responding to a query from Congress MLAs Jagat Singh Negi and Asha Kumar, the minister said 1,27,637 works were going on under MGNREGA in the state, out of which 74,527 works were pending. He said Rs 2.2 crore dues of MGNREGA workers were pending due to a technical glitch, delaying payment from the Union Government.

CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri said that a labourer was paid Rs 203 per day for MGNREGA works and skilled labourer as a mason Rs 321 per day. The government should increase the wages of labourers under MGNREGA as per the market rates, he said.

To a query from BJP MLA Vishal Nehria, the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies said that the government intended to close down all its remaining 59 fair price shops in the state. He said that the Food and Civil Supplies Corporation of the state was incurring huge losses due to fair price shops. The government would look for alternatives such as handing over fair price shops to private players or organisations. The government had 72 fair price shops in the state out of which 13 have already been closed and remaining would be shut in a phased manner.