Of the budgetary allocations made to MGNREGA, estimates suggest that about 20 per cent of the budget is paid towards clearing dues from previous years, he said.”The minimum average notified wage rate was increased by 7 per cent in FY25- at a time when Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation is estimated to be 5 per cent. The real wage increase is therefore a miserly 2 per cent,” he pointed out.”Between 2019-20 and 2023-24, close to 4 crore job cards were deleted. Meanwhile, only 1.2 crore job cards have been added in the last two years,” Ramesh said.Estimates from one state suggest that 15 per cent of the deletions were wrongful and on January 1, 2024, the central government made it mandatory that all payments for MGNREGA must be through the Aadhar-Based Payment System (ABPS), the Congress general secretary said.However, 27 per cent of workers are ineligible for payment under the ABPS and their demand for work is not registered, he said, adding that many also lose their wages despite doing work.”The National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) is also required for workers to register attendance. However, glitches in the app, limited access to smartphones, and irregular connectivity have resulted in widespread prevalence of unregistered attendance, unrecorded work, and delayed wage payments,” Ramesh argued.
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