Wage disparity linked to rural jobs to go: Ramesh

New Delhi, April 26 (IANS) The government is likely to bring changes in its flagship rural job scheme to remove disparity between wages given under it and the minimum wages fixed in states, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said Thursday.

"The government is contemplating amending MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) to remove the difference between wages offered by the state governments and the wages under (the plan)," Ramesh told the Lok Sabha.

He was replying to a question on whether the wages under the scheme had been lessened.

"Allocation has not been lessened. It is done on demand. More the demand more we give," said the minister, adding that the wages under the scheme were revised every year.

Ramesh said that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had promised that the allocation under the MNREGA would be done as per requirement and the "government is bound by that".