Wed May 21 16:45:06 UTC 2025: **Summary:**

The Congress party is criticizing the current state of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), specifically the low wages and inadequate implementation. Citing a report by LibTech India, Congress highlights that only a small percentage of households receive the promised 100 days of work and that employment figures have decreased despite increased registration. They argue the current budget is insufficient and that wages have stagnated for a decade. The Congress calls for a Standing Committee to be established and demand that MGNREGA wages be increased to ₹400 per day.

**News Article:**

**Congress Slams MGNREGA Implementation, Demands Wage Hike to ₹400**

**NEW DELHI, May 21, 2025** – The Congress party has launched a scathing critique of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), citing inadequate wages, poor implementation, and insufficient budgetary allocation. The attack follows the release of a report by LibTech India researchers highlighting significant shortcomings in the rural employment scheme.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh pointed to the report’s findings that only 7% of households receive the promised 100 days of work. He also noted an 8.6% increase in household registrations between 2023-2024 and 2024-25, despite a decline in average employment days per household (7.1%) and per person (4.3%). The number of households achieving the guaranteed 100 days of work also fell by 11.9%.

Ramesh also referenced Prime Minister Modi’s previous criticism of the scheme in Parliament. He further stated that the current MGNREGA budget of ₹86,000 crore is inadequate. He added that the People’s Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) recommended a budget of ₹2.64 lakh crore for 2022-23 and the World Bank recommends at least 1.7% of the country’s GDP should be allocated to the program (the current allocation only accounts for 0.26% of GDP).

During the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, MGNREGA workers voiced concerns about low wages, during a Jan Sunwai held at Ranka in Jharkhand on February 14, 2024. Eight months later, these issues continue to persist, in a government-created human, economic, and institutional tragedy, Mr. Ramesh said.

“MGNREGA wages cannot be set by the arbitrary whims of the government. A Standing Committee must be established to evaluate the need for changes in the wage rate,” Ramesh said.

The Congress party is advocating for a significant increase in wages, demanding that MGNREGA workers receive ₹400 per day.

The party claims this wage increase aligns with their Nyay Patra from the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.

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