It appears that temperamental West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is rushing to the Centre with her set of demands without checking facts.
Ms Banerjee, who has been putting pressure on the Centre to bail out her debt-ridden state, had earlier shot off letters to the Planning Commission and the ministry of rural development asking why people in West Bengal had to work more to earn a day’s wage under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and why the wage was hiked by a mere five per cent while in other states it went up by 10 to 15 per cent.
The Centre has conveyed to the West Bengal chief minister that answers to her queries lie with her state government only. “An NREGA worker has to work a day measured in output of about 90 cubic feet of soil in West Bengal because it was so decided by the state government only, and not the Centre. Also, this measurement is applicable to all the works that the state government carries out,” said a senior official of the ministry of rural development, who added that a note with explanation has been sent to the Planning Commission on the queries of the West Bengal chief minister.
In reply to the query of Ms Banerjee on why the NREGA wage was hiked by only five per cent, the ministry of rural development has explained the rule — that the hike is proportionate to the state consumer price index (CPI) and in the case of West Bengal it was only five per cent.
“In the case of other states the CPI ranged from 10 to 15 per cent, which reflected in the corresponding hike in the NREGA wage hikes,” added the official.
Ms Banerjee had sought to know from the Centre why people in her state were made to work harder when in other states NREGA workers earned a day’s wage by working about 50 per cent less work.