Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to release outstanding wage dues to the tune of ₹1,056 crore accumulated so far under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Due to complete exhaustion of wage funds based on the Labour Budget, wages to the tune of ₹1,056 crore were pending to be disbursed to the workers under MGNREGS Tamil Nadu for the past two months, Mr. Stalin said. During 2024-25, Tamil Nadu has achieved 23.36 crore persondays of wage employment as against the Labour Budget of 20 crore persondays upto January 1 this year, he added.
Recalling that the proposal to revise and increase the labour budget for Tamil Nadu from 20 crore persondays to 35 crore persondays was sent to Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India on November 23 last year, Mr. Stalin said it was awaiting sanction.
In Tamil Nadu, nearly 91 lakh workers belonging to 76 lakh households were actively participating in the MGNREGS. Mr. Stalin said 86% of employment was provided to women workers and nearly 29% workers were from SC/ST households. About 1 lakh differently-abled workers were provided employment each year under the scheme. The MGNREGS is an important wage employment scheme for rural areas and Tamil Nadu has always been a forerunner in the implementation, he said.
With Pongal being an important festival for Tamil people, Mr. Stalin contended that the delay in the release of funds has caused financial hardship to thousands of families that had put in hard work under the scheme.
Published – January 13, 2025 09:20 pm IST