Centre not willing to release funds

BHUBANESWAR: While the State is crying for Central assistance to carry forward the flagship wage employment programme under the NREGS, the Centre is reluctant to release funds as per the revised minimum wage.

The State Government revised the minimum wage for unskilled workers from Rs 70 to Rs 90 a day with effect from July 13. As per the Minimum Wage Act, each of the states is free to revise minimum wage as and when necessary and there is no need to take approval of the Central Government.

However, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) refused to provide assistance at the revised rate of minimum wage simply because the State Government has not taken approval of the Centre.

After repeated requests, the MoRD released Rs 86 crore to the State against its demand of Rs 400 crore a couple of days ago at the pre-revised rate of minimum wage.

Panchayati Raj Secretary S.N. Tripathy explained to the mandarins of MoRD that payments made to the workers under NREGS after July 13 is as per the revised wage rate and the State Government is not in a position to bear the additional expenses.

As the MoRD did not listen to Tripathy’s argument, the State Government moved the Law Ministry seeking approval of the revised minimum wage.

The State has so far received Rs 147.56 crore from the MoRD as against a labour budget of Rs 2,092 crore for 2009-10. The Ministry released the first dose of assistance of Rs 93 crore on August 9, 2009 and the second instalment of Rs 54.65 crore in September last year.

This is despite the commitment from the MoRD to release Rs 635 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Faced with acute funds crunch, the State Government has submitted an additional proposal of Rs 220 crore to the Centre. The Government took up the issue with Union Panchayati Raj Secretary A.N.P Sinha during his recent visit to the State.

The abysmally low allocation of fund by the Centre has severely affected the NREGS programme in the State. When there is high demand for jobs, several districts of the State are facing negative balance.

As per the provision, the Centre has to release the second dose of assistance after expenditure of 60 per cent of the first allotment. More than 20 districts of the State had utilised more than 80 per cent of the their allocation.