Centre throttling employment scheme in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: The functioning of the rights-based Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is on the verge of breakdown in the state. The Centre has not transferred the mandatory funds to the state during the last six months. The amount pending till March 31, 2017, is Rs 736 crore. Wages have not been paid for work done since November 2016. Never before has the Centre delayed MGNREGA payments to such an extent.

The LDF government’s ambitious Haritha Kerala Mission, fully dependent on MGNREGS, has been the biggest casualty. The construction of ‘anganwadis’, which too had been included under MGNREGA since January this year, too has been affected.

“There are hundreds of workers who had not been paid for the 40-60 days of work they had done,” said Mr M. S. Abdul Kalam Azad, the joint development commissioner of the State’s MGNREGA Mission. “The payment order for all the works carried out in 2016-17 had been passed. The Centre only has to electronically transfer the amount to the accounts of the workers,” he said. The state had to get Rs 2,438.62 crore as MGNREGS allocation during 2016-17. But it received just Rs 1,702.62 crore, a shortage of Rs 736 crore.

Unable to hold on without pay for long, workers are refusing MGNREGS work and have started looking for other jobs.

“We are not getting workers for the water conservation projects, mostly the digging of new wells and the revival of ponds, initiated as part of the Haritha Kerala Mission,” said Shaji, the president of Amboori panchayat near the Tamil Nadu border in the capital district.

During 2016-17, the average labour days provided per worker was 47. “This time, with the Haritha Mission in place, there is scope to offer employment for up to 150 days,” Mr Azad said. Non-payment, however, has forced workers to look out for other jobs, even cheaper ones. According to Mr Azad, Haritha Mission will have no effect if the works planned under it were not finished before the arrival of monsoon.