Wages to the tune of Rs.53.8 crore are yet to be paid in State
Vijayawada; Frequent changes in wage disbursal methods and technical glitches, coupled with government apathy, have deprived 8.6 lakh porters of their hard-earned wages worth Rs.53.8 crore in the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
“Factors that stand between the workers and their wages range from failure of the biometric authentication, problems of Aadhar seeding, migration of workers and inability and reluctance of the Branch Post Masters (BPMs) to shift between two systems of payment as it requires expertise and effort,” says Chakradhar Buddha, a governing body member of Delhi-based NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and also one of the five-member teams which toured the 13 districts of the State to study problems plaguing the Centrally-sponsored programme.
Changing modes
MGNREGA was introduced in erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh in 2005, and wages were disbursed manually. With the advent of technology, biometric systems were put to use. Aadhaar authentication followed soon after, with post offices disbursing wages through BPMs located in panchayats.
However, in December 2016, citing diversion of NREGA funds by States, the Centre introduced a National Fund Electronic Management System (NFEMS) to deposit wages directly to the workers’ accounts.
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