Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment Scheme. In current financial year 2025-26 (as on 21.07.2025), a total number of 3.83 crore household availed employment and a total of 106.77 crore persondays have been generated under Scheme.

As per the provisions of the Act, beneficiaries are entitled to receive wage payments within 15 days of work completion. In order to ensure timely payment, the Government of India has issued a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to all States/UTs, which defines fixed timelines for each stage of the wage payment process—from muster roll uploading to FTO approval. The Ministry along with the States/UTs has been making concerted efforts for improving the timely payment of wages. States/UTs have been advised to generate pay orders in time.

The Ministry has taken various steps to ensure timely payment of wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). These include:

• Improvement of National Electronic Fund Management System (Ne-FMS)
• Intensive consultation with State Governments and other stakeholders for ensuring timely payment of wages, verification of pending and delay compensation claims etc.
• Formulation of Standard Operating Procedure for monitoring of timely payment and payment of delay compensation.
• Reviewing the status of timely payment and payment of delay compensation with the States/ UTs during periodic meetings, Performance Review Committee meetings, Mid-term Reviews etc.

Further, continued efforts have been undertaken by the Ministry through various technological interventions for ensuring timely payments of wages. Some of the key interventions include:

• Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): Wages are transferred directly from the central account to workers’ bank accounts, minimizing the role of intermediaries and reducing fund misappropriation. This has proven to be effective in enhancing transparency and preventing leakages. Almost 100% of the funds are managed electronically with the wage payment made entirely through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) protocol.
• Aadhaar Payment Bridge System (APBS): APBS conversion is a major reform process where benefits are credited directly into the bank accounts based on the Aadhaar of the workers under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, preferably Aadhaar Based Payments, cutting several layers in the delivery process. APBS helps in better targeting, increasing the efficiency of the system and reducing the delays in payments, ensuring greater inclusion by curbing leakages thereby promoting greater accountability and transparency.
• National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS): Real-time attendance capture through geo-tagged photographs at the worksite ensures accurate and timely recording of attendance, which helps in timely payment of wages.

 

Here it may be noted that Mahatma Gandhi NREGS is a demand-driven wage employment scheme. It is a fall-back option when no better employment opportunity is available. To provide adequate employment opportunities to willing rural households under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, the Central Government has initiated several measures to generate awareness about the scheme. These include, (i) to initiate appropriate Information Education and Communication (IEC) campaigns including wall paintings for the wide dissemination of the provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, (ii) to expand scope and coverage of demand registration system to ensure that demand for work under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA does not go unregistered, (iii) prepare plans in a participatory mode and approve them in the Gram Sabha, (iv) Organization of ‘Rozgar Diwas’.

As per Section 7(1) of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, “If an applicant for employment under the Scheme is not provided such employment within fifteen 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, he shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance in accordance with this section."

This information was given by Minister of State for Rural Development Shri Kamlesh Paswan in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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RC/ KSR/AR

(Release ID: 2148473)