JAIPUR: The MGNREGA contractual employees, who have been on strike for the past one month demanding regularisation of their posts, alleged discrimination towards them as they pointed out disparities between their pay structure and that of employees to be appointed under the state government's Indira Gandhi Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme.
The monthly honorariums for accounts assistants and junior engineers/junior technical assistants (JTAs) under the Indira Gandhi scheme have been fixed at Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000, respectively. However, under MGNREGA, accounts assistants get Rs 8,000 and JTAs earn Rs 13,000 per month.
While under MGNREGA, the monthly honorarium for rozgar sahayaks (employment assistants) is Rs 5,000, it has been fixed at Rs 15,000 under the urban employment scheme. Meanwhile, state's rural development and panchayati raj minister Ramesh Chand Meena said the state government has decided to increase the monthly honorarium for MGNREGA contractual employees by 20 per cent.
"They decided to go on strike without any discussions with me or officials. They should have at least submitted a memorandum before going on 'hartal'. Had they come to us for talks, a solution would have come up. If their demands are genuine, we would have discussed it. They submitted a memorandum to me in Tonk. But, how can they come to me after starting their protest? However, their strike hasn't affected the regular functioning of NREGA work," Meena told TOI.
On higher pay for accounts assistants and junior engineers/JTAs/rozgar sahayaks under the urban employment scheme, the minister said, "It is a different system and categories (of employees) are also different. It (honorarium) has been fixed based on their experience, degree and special skills."
Ashok Kumar Vaishnav, advisor, MGNREGA Karmik Sangh, said, "We met the minister and senior officials before going on strike. They assured us they would positively do something about regularisation of our posts. But, there has been no progress. We had submitted memoranda addressing the minister and chief minister as well."
On the issue of 20% hike for NREGA mployees, he said, "The file pertaining to the hike has been returned by the finance department stating we are not eligible for it. It further stated that we are not eligible for a hike as we are entitled to an annual increment of 5%. If the minister is saying the government will increase our monthly honorarium, he should give us a time frame for the same. Moreover, the cadre of various categories of contractual employees is the same," he added. Around 7,300 MGNREGA contractual employees are on strike in the state.
