NEW DELHI: The government has dropped the idea of changing the wage calculation formula for its flagship rural jobs programme but has increased the wages about 6% for 2016-17. It has increased allocation to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme 4% to Rs 38,500 crore for 2016-17 compared to that in the current fiscal.
The scheme would have required an additional Rs 2,000 crore had the wages been increased as per the recommendations of the Mahendra Dev Committee, which favoured calculation of wages on the basis of the Consumer Price Index-rural instead of CPI-agriculture labour.
CPI-rural — a more recent index compared to CPI-agricultural labour and rural labour — would protect workers from inflation taking into account the price changes for the entire rural population of the country, the committee said. Officials said the rural development ministry, which was considering the committee’s recommendations, has decided to study the matter further after the finance ministry raised several questions.
Please click here to read more.