MSPP presses for release of unpaid wages
Source: Chronicle News Service

Kakching, February 26 2023: Demanding immediate release of the unpaid wages of the job card holders enlisted under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guaranteed Scheme (MGNREGS) and save the Rs 302 crore for material component for the financial year 2021-22, the work of which had been completed by the Panchayati raj institution (PRI), Manipur State Panchayat Parishad (MSPP) has appealed to authority concerned not to use wages of job card holders for filling up existing gaps of the state government's expenditures.

In a release, MSPP president Md Abdul Latif said that Suri Sailesh Kumar Singh, Rural development secretary, Government of India, had written to the chief secretary Rajesh Kumar to immediately release the wages amount of Rs 756 crore sanctioned by the rural development ministry on June 23, 2022 to the job card holders or face holding back of Rs 302 crore for material component.

The letter also threatened to exclude Manipur from the labour budget of MGNREGS for the financial year 2023-24 .

However, in spite of knowing this issue, the chief minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, informed the state assembly that of the total amount of Rs 756 crore released by the ministry to clear all liabilities for the financial year 2022-23, some had been used in other areas and the remaining amount of Rs 406 crore will be released by March 2023.This is more than shocking, Md Abdul Latif said and appealed to the government to release the unpaid amount of Rs 406 crore by February 2023.Meanwhile, a delegation of MSPP attended a meeting called by All India Panchayat Parishad (AIPP) in Delhi to discuss the issue of the state during which a memorandum containing demands of PRI was submitted.

AIPP has informed the MSPP delegates to wait and watch the actions of Manipur government till February 2023 after which AIPP will meet the PM and ministers concerned for solving the problem.

Comment