Tripura Cong demands 100 mandays for MGNREGA job card holders in current fiscal

Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on Saturday demanded that the state government provide at least 100 mandays to all MGNREGA job card holders during the remaining months of the current fiscal year (2024-25).

TPCC president Asish Kumar Saha claimed that an average 44 mandays have been generated in the northeastern state so far during the current financial year and the average mandays stood at 55 days in the previous fiscal year.

"The MGNREGA was formulated to provide 100 mandays to people engaged in the unorganized sector during the UPA regime. The BJP in its vision document had promised to give 200 mandays to rural poor with an increase of wage of Rs 340. Now, we are witnessing that the mandays' generation has been reducing with every passing day leaving the poor in an alarming situation," Saha told PTI.

"The situation in tribal areas is worrisome with the poor people running pillar to post to get jobs under the MGNREGA. The devastating floods, untimely rainfall, skyrocketing price rise and unemployment have been affecting the lives of poor people," he said.

Saha claimed that the state government had set a target to generate 3 crore mandays in the current financial year but it appears the achievement is far from the target as 1.30 lakh job card holders did not get mandays out of 6.83 lakh job card holders.

"Since the unprecedented flood has severely affected the economy of 20 lakh people, we demand to ensure the allocation of 100 mandays for the remaining months of the ongoing financial year. The Congress will not hesitate to launch a statewide agitation if the demand is not met", he added.