Roy slams Centre for challenging HC ruling on minimum wages

New Delhi: Social activist Aruna Roy on Saturday criticised the Centre for its decision to challenge the Karnataka High Court's ruling on payment of minimum wages to workers under the MNREGA and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately withdraw the Special Leave Petition.

In a strongly worded letter to Singh, Roy who is also a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC), said, "Claims of aspiring for 'inclusive growth' by a Government that fights the payment of minimum wages will only ring hollow and false."

"We urge you to issue instructions to immediately withdraw the SLP," she wrote.

The Karnataka High Court, in a landmark judgement, has said that no MNREGA worker could be paid less than the Minimum Wage, and ordered that the workers be paid the State Minimum Wages.

The social activist said she was "deeply distressed, dismayed, and shocked that the Ministry of Rural Development (as representing the Central government) has been instructed to file an appeal against the Karnataka High Court judgement".

"This decision reflects the gross insensitivity of the Central government towards the rights of the country's poor," Roy, who played a key role in incorporating strong citizens entitlements in MNREGA, said.

"The delinking of MNREGA from Minimum Wages renders both the MNREGA and the Minimum Wages Act weak and ineffective," she said.

Roy observed that the MNREGA has played a crucial role in making the Minimum Wage Act more effective and said, "a de-linking of the MNREGA wage rate from that of Minimum Wages seriously compromises the rights of MNREGA workers, and undermines the Minimum Wages Act itself."

"In effect, this also allows for an MNREGA worker to be paid less than another worker doing the same work," she said.