Summary:
The government is bound to provide the MGNREGA labourers 100 days of work but the poor labourers are not given unemployment allowance. The ministry also stated that the since last five years, not a single person was given unemployment allowance in Punjab under MGNREGA.“The authorities do not register the workers’ demand so as not to give them unemployment allowance. If the government fails to provide 100 days of work to the labourers, it has to pay (them) unemployment allowance. The government is supposed to hold awareness camps for MGNREGA workers, but these are not conducted in the villages,” said Chadha. Information procured under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that only 217 persons in the country got the unemployment allowance under MGNREGA in 2017-18, with no beneficiary from Punjab.Under the Act, labourers who seek work but can’t get it within 15 days, are eligible for unemployment allowance..