BHUBANESWAR: More than 50,000 claims are pending with the Government for payment of unemployment allowance when only 7.24 lakh out of 60.50 lakh registered job seekers have demanded employment under MGNREGS. There is more to it than meets the eyes. Maximum number of unemployment allowance claims has been reported from tribal- dominated districts like Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Keonjjhar, Kandhamal, Korput and Gajapati followed by Bhadrak and Kendrapara. While 7,757 job seekers have claimed unemployment allowance in Mayurbhanj district in the current financial year, Rayagada and Nabarangpur have 4,237 and 4,042 such pending cases. More than 3,400 claims for such allowance are pending in Kendrapara, Kandhamal and Bhadrak districts. The total number of claims pending are 50,014. Two districts - Jajpur and Sonepur - are free from such dubious distinctions. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act provides unemployment allowance to job seekers if the Government failed to provide wage employment after 15 days of his seeking work. Job card holders are entitled for 100 days of work within a calendar year. As per the Act, the State Government has to pay the unemployment allowance of 25 per cent of the minimum wage fixed for unskilled workers with interest from its own funds. Official sources said that delayed payment to the job-seekers is the primary reason for the low demand for wage employment under NREGS. About 28,500 muster rolls have received delayed payment ranging from 16 to 90 days. In 12,366 cases, job card holders have received payment between 16 and 30 days while payment was made to 11,853 workers between 31 and 60 days. It took more than two months for 3,796 workers and more than 90 days for 484 persons to receive their wages. The sources attributed the delay in payment of wage to the provision of making payment through post office or bank. While the presence of commercial banks in rural areas is very insignificant, the few post offices available are unable to cater to the needs. The problem can only be sorted out if commercial banks pressed business correspondents into service soon. The Government has utilised Rs. 298.81 crore out of Rs. 801 crore released by the Centre till August 29. While over 1.81 lakh projects are taken up, 5,156 projects were completed which is 3 per cent. The Centre has approved Rs. 2,307 crore labour budget for the State for the current financial year.
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