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    MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)

    PRELIMINARY
    The Government of India passed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 in September, 2005. The Act gives legal guarantee of a hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to adult members of a rural household who demand employment and are willing to do unskilled manual work. The Act will be applicable to areas notified by the Central Government. The objective of the Act is to enhance the livelihood security of the people in the rural areas by generating wage employment through works that develop the infrastructure base of that area.

    Scheme Brief
    Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 stipulates that every State Govt. shall notify a scheme and therefore, “Haryana Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme” had been formulated in accordance with the operational guidelines and provisions of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. The said scheme had also been notified in the Haryana Government Gazette (extra), March, 16, 2007 by the State Government.

    Launching of Scheme
    Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched by Govt. of India in all Gram Panchayats of districts Mahendergarh and Sirsa on 2nd February, 2006 and this scheme was also extended in two more districts namely Ambala & Mewat w.e.f. 1st April, 2007. The remaining districts of the State have been covered under the scheme w.e.f. 1.4.2008..

    Objectives
    Enhancement of livelihood security to the households in rural areas of the State by providing round the year employment with minimum guarantee of one hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to every household volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Secondary objective includes creation of assets for development of rural areas.

    Cost Sharing
    Financial assistance shall be provided by Central and State Governments in the ratio of 90:10 respectively.

    Target Group

    1. Scheme is open to all rural households who are in need of wage employment and desire to do manual and unskilled work.
    2. Period of employment should ordinarily be atleast fourteen days continuously with not more than six days in a week.
    3. Priority to works where atleast one third of wage seekers are women.
    4. Persons desirous for work may submit their applications to the Gram Panchayat.
    5. Gram Panchayat shall register the household. After verification, job card is to be issued to the applicant household.
    6. Gram Panchayat or Block Programme Officer shall provide unskilled manual work to the applicant within fifteen days of receipt of application preferably within a radius of 5 kilometers of the village, where the applicant resides. In case the employment is provided outside such radius, it must be provided within the Block and the laborers shall be paid 10% of the wage rate as extra wages to meet additional transportation and living expenses.

    Programme Strategy
    The programme will be implemented through Panchayati Raj Institutions. The Block Programme Officer shall allot fifty-percent works in terms cost to the Gram Panchayat. Gram Sabha shall recommend works and the Gram Panchayat shall identify/approve the works for implementation.

    The Block Programme Officer will scrutinize the Annual Plan. The Panchayat Samiti will maintain the priority of works indicated by the Gram Panchayat and approve the Block level Plan.

    The Chief Executive Officer is designated as District Programme Coordinator for implementation of the Act/Scheme in the district. The DPC shall scrutinize the plan proposals of the Panchayat Samitis. The whole exercise shall be completed by DPC before end of December each year.

    Permissible Works
    The following works are permissible under MGNREGS :-

    1. water conservation and water harvesting including contour trenches, contour bunds, boulder checks, gabion structures, underground dykes, earthen dams, stop dams and springshed development;
    2. drought proofing including afforestation and tree plantation;
    3. irrigation canals, including micro and minor irrigation works;
    4. provision of irrigation facility, dug out farm pond, horticulture, plantation, farm bunding and land development on land owned by households specified in paragraph IC;
    5. renovation of traditional water bodies including desilting of tanks;
    6. land development;
    7. flood control and protection works including drainage in water logged areas including deepening and repairing of flood channels, chaur renovation, construction of storm water drains for coastal protection;
    8. rural connectivity to provide all weather access, including culverts and roads within a village, wherever necessary;
    9. construction of Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra as Knowledge Resource Centre at the Block level and as Gram Panchayat Bhawan at the Gram Panchayat level;
    10. agriculture related works, such as, NADEP composting, vermicomposting, liquid bio-manures;
    11. Livestock related works, such as, poultry shelter, goat shelter, construction of pucca floor, urine tank and fodder trough for cattle, azolla as cattle-feed supplement;
    12. fisheries related works, such as, fisheries in seasonal water bodies on public land;
    13. works in coastal areas, such as, fish drying yards, belt vegetation;
    14. rural drinking water related works, such as, soak pits, recharge pits;
    15. rural sanitation related works, such as, individual household latrines, school toilet units, anganwadi toilets, solid and liquid waste management;
      1. construction of anganwadi centers
      2. constructions of play fields”
    16. Construction & maintenance of approach roads for level crossings;/ railway stations, repairs of earthwork to the existing railway embankments/cuttings/ Plantation of trees at extreme boundary of railway land
    17. Construction of Food Grain Storage Structures
    18. any other work which may be notified by the Central Government in consultation with the State Government;

    All activities mentioned in items (iv), (x), (xi) and items (xiii) to (xv) above shall be allowed on land or homestead owned by households belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes or below poverty line families or the beneficiaries of land reforms or the beneficiaries under the Indira Awaas Yojana of the Government of India or that of the small or marginal farmers as defined in the Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008, or the beneficiaries under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (2 of 2007).

    The works referred to in items (iv), (x), (xi) and items (xiii) to (xv) of above shall be taken up subject to the following conditions, namely:-

    (a) the households referred above shall have the job card; and

    (b) the beneficiaries shall work on the project undertaken on their land or homestead.” ;

    Wages
    Under the scheme, minimum wages of Rs. 331/- per manday notified by the Ministry of Rural Development, Govt of India w.e.f. 1st April, 2022 are being paid equal to men and women workers. The payment of wages is being made through Saving Bank/Post Offices accounts of workers on weekly or fortnightly basis.

    Unemployment Allowance
    Unemployment allowance shall be payable if employment is not provided within 15 days of the receipt of the application. The rate of unemployment allowance shall be one forth of the wage rate for the first thirty days and not less than one half of the wage rate for the remaining period.

    Unemployment allowance shall not be paid if the applicant does not report for work within fifteen days or adult members of the household received atleast one hundred days of work during the financial year.

    Wage and Material Ratio
    60:40 wage and material ratio to be maintained at District level.

    Muster Rolls
    Muster rolls for each work is required to be maintained.

    Ban on Contractors
    Engagement of contractors and use of labour displacing machines are banned.