TN govt stopped wages, jobs for MGNREGS workers for last 2 months, alleges EPS

CHENNAI: Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami criticised the State government on Wednesday for reportedly not disbursing wages to the workers of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for the last two months.

The payment for the scheme is stuck with the Centre, and Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to the Centre about the issue some time back.

The AIADMK general secretary also alleged that the DMK government has stopped offering jobs in several districts from the beginning of this year.

This has hit people badly as most of the beneficiaries of the scheme hail from poor and marginalised sections of society in rural pockets of the State, Palaniswami said. The livelihood of the beneficiaries is dependent on this rural job scheme, he added. However, the Chief Minister M K Stalin-led DMK government has not provided jobs under the scheme in several districts for the past two months, which is highly deplorable, Palaniswami said in a statement.

He stated that the DMK failed in its poll promise to increase the number of working days from 100 to 150 under MGNREGS, enhance the wage to Rs 300, and extend the scheme to town panchayats. He said the DMK government hasn’t made efforts to materialise the tall promises.

Palaniswami demanded that the government take measures to disburse the pending wages to the workers and ensure regular jobs under the scheme for the poor and marginalised.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister MK Stalin, on January 13, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to release the outstanding wages amounting to the tune of Rs 1,056 crore under the MGNREGS. He also pointed out that 91 lakh people who were enrolled under the scheme were benefiting under the scheme in the State. 86% of the beneficiaries are women. CM urged the PM to release the outstanding funds for the scheme immediately.