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Calcutta
Bengal Wage sparks fly on job scheme
Opinion - UPA draws flak over minimum rate, Ahluwalia lone
International defender
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RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
Sports
Entertainment New Delhi, Jan. 18: Members of the National
Sudoku Advisory Council (NAC), labour activists, lawyers
and Left politicians today slammed the UPA for
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decoupling the pay for the rural job scheme from
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minimum wages, leaving Montek Singh
Gallery Ahluwalia as the lone defender of the
Horse Racing government at a gathering.
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The trigger for the barrage of criticism was the
WEEKLY FEATURES Prime Minister’s reaffirmation of a notification of
Knowhow the rural development ministry that froze at Rs
Jobs 100 the daily wages under the Mahatma Gandhi
Telekids National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Careergraph (MNREGA).
Personal TT Sonia Gandhi, who heads the NAC, had written to the Prime Minister to consider
7days linking the rural job scheme to minimum wages, which are higher than Rs 100 in
Graphiti many states. Many believe that the blockbuster welfare project played a key role
in the return of the UPA to power.
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In his reply, the Prime Minister said a wage index would be developed for the job
Choose Region 6 scheme and till then, the wages would be linked to inflation. The reply was seen
as a polite rejection of the demand to link the job scheme directly to minimum
FEEDS wages – another sticking point at a time the NAC and a panel appointed by the
RSS Prime Minister are at odds on the food security bill.
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Many participants in the seminar on the minimum wage policy for the
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unorganised sector, convened by the Bandhua Mukti Morcha, seized on this
rejection to suggest that the government was setting the stage for “forced labour”
as its order violated a court directive on minimum wages.

Search The minimum wage statute has been upheld by several judgments of the
Supreme Court, including the one dealing with Kamani Metals and Alloys versus
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workers. The court said a minimum wage must be paid, irrespective of the extent
Since 1st March, 1999 of profits earned by an employer, his fiscal condition or the availability of workers
for lower wages. It held that non-payment of minimum wages was tantamount to
THE TELEGRAPH “forced labour” that is banned under Article 23 of the Constitution and violated a
- About Us fundamental right.
- Advertise The UPA government had invoked Section 6 (1) of the MNREGA in its defence,
- Feedback stating: “Notwithstanding anything contained in the Minimum Wages Act, the
- Contact Us central government may, by notification, specify the wage rate for the purpose of
the act.”

Responding to a petition from labour groups on the non-payment of minimum

wages, Andhra Pradesh High Court had suspended the rural development
ministry’s notification for a period of eight weeks and restored Section 6 (2) that
stipulated that until a wage rate is fixed by the Centre for a state, that state
government has to pay the legal minimum wage.

But since the rural job scheme workers in Andhra continued to be paid less than
the minimum wage, the petitioners filed a contempt petition against the central
and state governments. The cases remain unsettled.

At the seminar today, A.P. Shah, the former chief justice of Delhi High Court, said:
“Where is the rule of law if the government can so easily violate a court order?

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1/21/2011 The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nat…
The government has been in contempt for more than one year, which virtually
means that the common man has no legal remedy against the state.”

Ahluwalia, the Planning Commission deputy chairperson, said: “The government

will have to go by what the court says.”NAC member Aruna Roy then said: “You
are asking to wait for the court procedures to be completed. I dispute this.”

Ahluwalia replied: “This is becoming complicated. You can contest the legal
procedures. When all the legal options are exhausted, the government will obey
what the court says.”

Nikhil Dey, an RTI activist, told the gathering of largely landless farm-hands from
Rajasthan that included women with babies huddled in their arms: “The
government stands in contempt of the court for 18 months. There is no legal
procedure, no minimum wage.”

Another NAC member Harsh Mander, who is spearheading the movement for the
universal food security coverage, said although India was not short of pro-poor
laws and schemes, “the government is unwilling to implement them”.

Mander said while the rural job scheme could have “facilitated the extinction of
bonded labour”, the convergence of caste and class-based vested interests in
rural India militated against the payment of minimum wages. “Farmers should
get the right price for their produce but it cannot be anybody’s case that farmers
should prosper while the workers wilt away,” he said.

Although government sources cited resource crunch, some speakers at the

seminar said linking to the minimum wage would not entail an additional annual
expenditure of more than Rs 1,200 crore.

Other speakers felt that a powerful farm lobby was at work to keep the scheme
away from the minimum wage. The lobby apparently fears that such an
empowerment will trigger a clamour for similar rates elsewhere in rural India that
has many places where the minimum wage is yet to be enforced despite the
Supreme Court’s orders.

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