New Delhi, Feb. 9 -- A Parliamentary panel has expressed concerns that the daily wages paid under the flagship rural employment scheme - Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme - are inadequate and not aligned with the rising cost of living, which, it pointed out, may be one of the reasons for dearth of workers under the scheme.
"The committee finds the range of wages vary from as little as Rs 221 in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Rs 224 in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 228 in Bihar and Jharkhand to Rs 354 in the three gram panchayats of Sikkim (Gnathang, Lachung and Lachen), Rs 328 in Nicobar and Rs 311 in Andaman," said the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj which was tabled...