Budget must increase MGNREGA wages: Cong

New Delhi: The Congress has demanded that the Union Budget must increase MGNREGA wages and the Aadhar Based Payment Bridge Systems not be made mandatory. It demanded that MGNREGA wages be increased with the goal of hitting Rs 400 per day as a national minimum wage.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said MGNREGA wages cannot be set by the arbitrary whims of the government and a Standing Committee must be established to evaluate the need for changes in the wage rate.
The Aadhar Based Payment Bridge Systems (ABPS) must not be made mandatory, Ramesh said and added that the number of workdays under MGNREGA must be increased from 100 to 150 days.
In the years since, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, MGNREGA has conclusively demonstrated its utility as one of the few social security interventions that the government can execute, he said. From a pre-pandemic total of 6.16 crore households requesting work under the scheme in 2019-20, the numbers jumped by 33 per cent to 8.55 crore in 2020-2021, he said.