MGNREGA workers may get wage hike

National Advisory Council (NAC) Member Jaan Daraz has favoured immediate hike in the wages for work at various MGNREGA sites and said the NAC had already made recommendation for the same. Talking to UNI here today, Mr Daraz said the NAC had recommended that the government should revert back to clause 6(2) of the MG NREGA which had provision of revising the wages at par to the wages fixed in that state under the Minimum Wages Act-1948. He said until 2008, the clause6(2) was effective and operative but later in view of much disparity in the minimum wages rate in different states, the Centre had activated the clause 6(1) of the MG NREGA and accordingly fixed the wage rate at Rs 100 per day. Since then, price index as well as wages under Minimum Wages Act had increased considerably which underlined the need of hike in their wages too. ''There is a need to evolve and formulate some mechanism for addressing the workers' due needs and expectations in this regard'',Daraz said.