The Minister of State for Rural Development, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti today said that as per the provisions mentioned in Schedule-II of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA), wage seekers shall be entitled to receive payment of compensation for the delay, at the rate of 0.05% of the unpaid wages per day of delay beyond the sixteenth day of closure of muster roll.

The Minister further informed that in the current financial year (as on 18.12.2022), the percentage of payment generated within 15 days is 95.55%.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said, any delay in payment of compensation beyond a period of fifteen days from the date it becomes payable, shall be considered in the same manner as the delay in payment of wages. The State Government shall pay the compensation upfront after due verification within the time limits as specified above and recover the compensation amount from the functionaries or agencies who are responsible for the delay in payment.

The Ministry has taken various steps to ensure timely payment of wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. These include:

(i) Upscaling of National Electronic Fund Management System (Ne-FMS) in 27 States and 3 Union Territories.

(ii)  Intensive consultation with State Governments and other stakeholders to strategize timely payment of wages, verification of pending compensation claims etc.

(iii) Formulation of Standard Operating Procedure for monitoring of timely payment and payment of compensation.

(iv) Video conferences with States/ UTs reviewing the status of timely payment and payment of delay compensation.

(v) States/UT’s have been requested to ensure timely regeneration of rejected transaction and every fund release is tagged with priority release of rejected transaction.

(vi)  States have been requested to ensure correction of invalid accounts as per information provided by PFMS.

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