No proposal to fix national minimum wage

Hyderabad, May 14 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh today clarified that the Centre has no official proposal to fix national minimum wage at Rs 60 under National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP).

Addressing the press here, Mr Ramesh said the Centre has no plans to fix minimum wages for the beneficiaries of the NREGP, which was being implemented in 200 districts, as part of the first phase in the country.

Stating that the NREGP would be implemented in all 600 districts in the next four years, the minister said the job cards under the NREGP had already been distributed to 39 lakh families, out of which four lakh families were getting jobs in Andhra Pradesh.

Lauding the state government's efforts for issuing highest number of job cards to the poor, Mr Ramesh said the state would also put in place an elaborate system to ensure tranparency, accountability and prompt payments to the beneficiearies, with the assistance of TATA Consultancy Services and wages paid through Postal department to the beneficiaries once in a week from next month in the state.

The minister also noted that Andhra Pradesh would become a role-model in the implementation of the NREGP in the country.

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