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The President has given assent to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. The Act provides for enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work and for matter connected therewith or incidental thereto. The Act will be applicable to whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
As per Section 3(1), the State Governments have to provide of 100 days of work to a member of every household in a financial year in accordance with the Scheme made under this Act. Every person who has done the work given to him under the Scheme shall be entitled to receive wages on a weekly basis or in any case not later than a fortnight after the date on which such work was done.
Every State Government shall, within six months from the date of commencement of this Act, by notification, make a Scheme, for providing the employment The State Government shall publish a summary of the Scheme made by it in at least two local newspapers.
Until such time as wage rate is fixed by the Central Government in respect of any area in a State, the minimum wage fixed by the State Government under section 3 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for agricultural labourers, shall be considered as the wage rate applicable to that area. Till the notification of scheme by the State Government, Annual Action Plan or Perspective Plan for Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana or National Food for Work Programme whichever is in force in the concerned area immediately before such notification shall be deemed to be the action plan for the Scheme for the purpose of this Act.
An applicant shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance when he is not provided such employment within 15 days of receipt of his application seeking employment or from the date on which the employment has been sought in the case of an advance application, whichever is later. The unemployment allowance payable to the household of an applicant jointly shall be sanctioned and disbursed by the Programme Officer or such local authority as the State Government may authorize in this behalf. The State Government will bear the full cost of unemployment allowance. The unemployment allowance will not be less than one-fourth of the wage rate for the first thirty days during the financial year and not less than half of the wage rate for the remaining period of the financial year.
The Central Government will constitute a Council to be called the Central Employment Guarantee Council to discharge the functions, and perform the duties, assigned to it by or under this Act. The Council will consist of a Chairperson and members representatives of the Central Ministries not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India, representatives of State Governments and non-official members representing Panchayati Raj. The headquarters shall be at Delhi. The work of this Council will establish a central evaluation and monitoring system; advise the Central Government on all matters concerning the implementation of this Act; review the monitoring and redressal mechanism from time to time and recommend improvements required; promote the widest possible dissemination of information about the Schemes; and preparation of annual reports to be laid before Parliament by the Central Government on the implementation of this Act.
On the same pattern, every State Government shall constitute a State Employment Guarantee Council to discharge the similar functions.
The Panchayats at district, intermediate and village levels shall be the principal authorities for planning and implementation of the Schemes. The District Programme Coordinator shall assist the Panchayat at the district level in discharging its functions under this Act. The Chief Executive Officer or the District Panchayat or the Collector of the district or any other district level officer of appropriate rank as the State Government may decide shall be designated as the District Programme Coordinator for the implementation of the Scheme in the district.
The Gram Panchayat shall be responsible for identification of the projects in the Gram Panchayat area. The Gram Sabha shall monitor the execution of works within the Gram Panchayat.
The State Government shall determine appropriate grievance redressal mechanisms at the Block level and the district level and shall provide to the necessary staff and technical support to the District Programme Coordinator for the effective implementation of the Scheme.
The Central Government shall establish a fund to be called ‘National Employment Guarantee Fund’ and on this basis, the State Government shall also establish ‘State Employment Guarantee Fund’.
The Central Government may, in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, prescribe appropriate arrangements for audits of the Schemes at all levels. The accounts of the Scheme shall be maintained in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed by the State Government.
ALM/SK/NSR
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