Parliament Question: Delay in Wage Payments under MGNREGS

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 392 ANSWERED ON 22/07/2025 DELAY IN WAGE PAYMENTS UNDER MGNREGS 392. SHRI SHRIRANG APPA CHANDU BARNE: Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) the steps taken by the Government to address and eliminate persistent delays in wage payments to the workers of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS); (b) the details of average delay period and the number of complaints regarding delayed payments received and resolved in the last year; (c) the mechanisms adopted to ensure the quality and durability of assets created under MGNREGS (e.g., roads, water harvesting structures afforestation); (d) whether regular quality audits conducted, if so, the findings thereof; (e) the specific measures taken to ensure the full inclusion and participation of marginalized communities women and persons with disabilities in MGNREGS and their current participation rate particularly in Maharashtra? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI KAMLESH PASWAN) (a)&(b): As per the provisions of the Act, beneficiaries are entitled to receive wage payments within 15 days of work completion. In order to ensure timely payment, the Government of India has issued a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to all States/UTs, which defines fixed timelines for each stage of the wage payment process—from muster roll uploading to FTO approval. The Ministry along with the States/UTs has been making concerted efforts for improving the timely payment of wages. States/UTs have been advised to generate pay orders in time. Page 1 of 8The Ministry has taken various steps to ensure timely payment of wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). These include:  Improvement of National Electronic Fund Management System (Ne-FMS)  Intensive consultation with State Governments and other stakeholders for ensuring timely payment of wages, verification of pending and delay compensation claims etc.  Formulation of Standard Operating Procedure for monitoring of timely payment and payment of delay compensation.  Reviewing the status of timely payment and payment of delay compensation with the States/ UTs during periodic meetings, Performance Review Committee meetings, Mid-term Reviews etc. Further, continued efforts have been undertaken by the Ministry through various technological interventions for ensuring timely payments of wages. Some of the key interventions include:  Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): Wages are transferred directly from the central account to workers’ bank accounts, minimizing the role of intermediaries and reducing fund misappropriation. This has proven to be effective in enhancing transparency and preventing leakages. Almost 100% of the funds are managed electronically with the wage payment made entirely through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) protocol.  Aadhaar Payment Bridge System (APBS):APBS conversion is a major reform process where benefits are credited directly into the bank accounts based on the Aadhaar of the workers under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, preferably Aadhaar Based Payments, cutting several layers in the delivery process. APBS helps in better targeting, increasing the efficiency of the system and reducing the delays in payments, ensuring greater inclusion by curbing leakages thereby promoting greater accountability and transparency.  National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS):Real-time attendance capture through geo-tagged photographs at the Page 2 of 8worksite ensures accurate and timely recording of attendance, which helps in timely payment of wages. (c): Details of mechanisms adopted to ensure the quality and durability of assets created under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS are given at Annexure-I. (d): In addition to the regular monitoring visits done by the National Level Monitors & Social audit conducted by the Gram Sabha, audits are also conducted by internal audit wing of Ministry of Rural Development annually. Some of the issues reported in these audits are:  Misappropriation of funds  Work done by machinery  Fake job cards  Poor quality of work  No work found  Workfile not maintained properly etc. (e): The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA) has special provisions for women and it has been categorically mentioned in Schedule-II, Para 15 that while providing employment, priority shall be given to women in such a way that at least one-third of the beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and demanded for work under the Scheme. Provision has been laid for differently abled, women & elderly in the Act. Schedule-I, Para 18 states that, “a separate Schedule of Rates shall be finalized for women, the elderly, people with disabilities and people with debilitating ailments so as to improve their participation through productive work.” As per Para 7.12.5 of the Annual Master Circular, at least 50% of the worksite supervisors (mates) should be women, preferably from among the members of Self Help Groups (SHGs). Further, under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, individual assets can be created on own lands in which such households can also work and will be entitled to get wages as per the notified wage rate of the states/UTs. As per the Para 5 of Schedule I of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, it has been specified that works creating individual assets shall be prioritized on land or homestead owned by households belonging to the: Page 3 of 8(a) Scheduled Castes (b) Scheduled Tribes (c) Nomadic tribes (d) Denotified tribes (e) Other families below the poverty line (f) Women-headed households (g) Physically handicapped headed households (h) Beneficiaries of land reforms (i) The beneficiaries under the Pradhan MantriAwaasYojana- Gramin (j) Beneficiaries under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (2 of 2007), and after exhausting the eligible beneficiaries under the above categories, on lands of the small or marginal farmers as defined in the Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008 subject to the condition that such households shall have a job card with at least one member willing to work on the project undertaken on their land or homestead. This scheme is universally available for every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Further, provision has been made to provide additional 50 days of wage employment to every ST household in a forest area, provided that these households have no other private property except for the land rights provided under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. District-wise number of disabled persons employed and corresponding persondays generated, employment provided to number of women and persondays generated by women in Maharashtra State under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS during the current financial year 2025-26 (as on 17.07.2025) are given at Annexure-II. ***** Page 4 of 8Annexure-I Annexure referred to in reply to part (c) of LokSabhaUnstarred Question No.392 dated 22.07.2025. Mechanisms to Ensure Quality and Durability of Assets under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS:  Geo-tagging of the Assets: Geo-tagging in Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has been started from 1 September 2016. The purpose of this is to know the actual status of the works constructed under the scheme. (As on 25.03.25) more than 6.36 crore assets have been geo-tagged, details of which have been made available in public domain.  Mandatory expenditure on agriculture and allied activities: As per the provision of the Act, the District Programme Coordinator shall ensure that at least 60% of the works to be taken up in the district in terms of cost shall be for creation of productive assets connected with agriculture and allied activities through development of land, water and trees.  Emphasis on Social Audit: System of Social Audit is being strengthened. In association with the office of Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) of India, the auditing standards have been prepared and approved and the implementation of the same has started. As of now, 27 States and 2 UT have established Social Audit units.The SAUs are being constantly impressed upon to recruit and train minimum core staff at State, District and Block level.  Capacity Development: Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers are being trained under recent initiatives like Bare Foot Technicians (BFT) to move them up the skilling ladder, in order to assist in making layouts, taking measurements of work done etc. So far, 9,186 BFTs have been trained in 20 States.  SECURE (Software for Estimate Calculation Using Rural Rates for Employment): SECURE is implemented in 703 districts across 28 States and 4 UTs. Now, administrative and technical sanctions of works can be accorded online through SECURE, thus bring transparency and speeding up the process.  GIS based Planning of GPs: The Ministry has initiated an integrated holistic planning of the Gram Panchayats based on watershed development principles (ridge to valley approach) using Geographical information system (GIS). Out of 2.69 lakh GPs plan, 2.65 lakh GPs were completed till date. Page 5 of 8 JANMANREGA App: - The JANMANREGA App is a citizen- centric mobile application. The JANMANREGA App allows locating already geotagged more than six crore Mahatma Gandhi NREGS’ Assets. Citizens are also able to provide feedback about assets that have been created under the programme and essential information related to their work under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. Beneficiaries can access details such as payment status, attendance, APBS status, and job-card information. Also they raise concerns about various issues, including payment, work allocation, work demand etc., by entering the job-card number. The app also includes a text- to-speech feature for enhanced accessibility.  National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS): App was launched on May, 21 2021. To ensure more transparency in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in the States/UTs, a provision of capturing of attendance at worksite through National Mobile Monitoring System App (NMMS App) with two- time Geotagged photographs of the beneficiaries in a day had been started for all the worksites (except Individual Beneficiary Scheme/Project) and made these attendance in public domain which increases citizen oversight of the programme besides potentially enabling faster processing of payments.  Area Officer Monitoring App: This app facilitates to record the findings during the field inspections of the worksites. It helps in the analysis of findings which in turn contribute in implementation of programme in a better manner.  Technical Oversight Structure:A dedicated technical setup ensures engineering oversight and quality control.  Field-Level Monitoring: Continuous field-level monitoring is carried out by trained technical personnel and field assistants to ensure proper execution of work as per specifications.  Quality Monitoring and Control:Functioning at both State and District levels, these cells monitor the works executed by Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs). They conduct inspections, issue compliance reports, and suggest corrective actions where needed. Through planning tools like SECURE, technical supervision at multiple levels, geo-tagging for transparency, and community-based monitoring, Mahatma Gandhi NREGS ensures that the assets Page 6 of 8created—such as roads, water conservation structures, afforestation etc—are durable, need-based, and of high quality. ***** Annexure-II Annexure referred to in reply to part (e) of LokSabhaUnstarred Question No.392 dated 22.07.2025. State: Maharashtra No. of disabled Persondays EMP. Provided Persondays S. Persons Generated by to no. of Generated by District No. Employed in FY disabled in FY women in FY women in FY 2025-26 2025-26 2025-26 2025-26 1 Ahmednagar 231 4214 49688 975503 2 Akola 2311 47140 36259 685920 3 Amravati 1048 30238 72892 1753451 4 Beed 587 12323 121193 2413171 5 Bhandara 4343 93078 100325 2097160 6 Buldhana 159 2170 35279 477319 7 Chandrapur 591 10708 74343 1417268 ChatrapatiSambhaji 8 972 17007 73614 1452400 Nagar 9 Dharashiv 165 3250 26163 459157 10 Dhule 431 5054 42190 706704 11 Gadchiroli 858 13177 64812 1018029 12 Gondia 285 4916 136601 2929400 13 Hingoli 118 2913 35444 755346 14 Jalgaon 292 5463 56812 1046012 15 Jalna 298 3720 58999 684450 16 Kolhapur 88 1616 19558 333248 17 Latur 214 4514 46187 977670 18 Nagpur 214 4274 20110 391940 19 Nanded 261 4996 67011 1252467 20 Nandurbar 129 1915 45173 699956 21 Nashik 808 13898 66932 1194345 22 Palghar 871 12641 83516 1259286 23 Parbhani 342 7681 54172 1121348 24 Pune 59 691 12105 161718 25 Raigad 47 644 6794 93637 26 Ratnagiri 134 1946 10992 137510 27 Sangli 53 1044 11303 188749 28 Satara 211 2587 22071 276957 29 Sindhudurg 105 1295 8361 113726 30 Solapur 190 2386 28379 427258 31 Thane 80 1197 13830 240860 32 Wardha 260 5007 18696 399380 Page 7 of 833 Washim 923 17249 47678 908226 34 Yavatmal 683 14649 86142 1782437 Total 18361 355601 1653624 30832008 ***** Page 8 of 8