The Trinamool leader also said that only half of the person days could be created during the April-May period of the current fiscal compared with a year-ago period.

The Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government on Monday demanded extension of the 100 days of work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA(page 3)) to every registered worker in rural areas from every household at present.

The state also demanded that the wage under MNREGA should be linked with rural consumer price index (CPI) so that such set of workers get higher actual wage than the nominal one.

“The Centre raised the wage rate under MNREGA by Rs 20 to Rs 202; but it is well below the current minimum wage rate offered by 31 states and Union Territories,” said TMC’s leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien said.

He also said though the Centre has made an additional Rs 40,000-crore allocation for the MNREGA work, around Rs 11,500 crore would go into repaying arrears of the previous year.

O’Brien demanded that every worker under MNREGA should get their wages within 15 days of the work completion. Though it is within the rule, most of the time it does not happen, he alleged.

The Trinamool leader also said that only half of the person days could be created during the April-May period of the current fiscal compared with a year-ago period.