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Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010
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NREGA wages: High Court raps governments

Legal Correspondent

Comply with orders on minimum wages in two weeks, High Court tells
State, Centre

HYDERABAD: Justice N. Ramamohana Rao of the A.P. High Court on Tuesday gave two weeks to the State and Central governments to take steps to comply with the directions regarding payment of minimum wages to the workers engaged in NREGA works.

Contempt case

The judge was dealing with contempt case filed against Amita Shah, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Rural Development, New Delhi.

The petitioner alleged that after the orders of the court, the officer got issued new notification in December 2009 fixing the wages below the minimum wages.

Violation

It was alleged that this is continued violation of the orders of the court.

It may be recalled that A.P. Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union, through its secretary Ajay Kumar and four other labourers of Visakhapatnam district, filed a writ petition complaining that workers were being paid less than the minimum wages.

The judge had granted interim orders suspending the notification of the Union government fixing the wage at Rs. 80.

On Tuesday, the contempt case filed against the State government officers and the main writ petition were all listed.

The judge heard the Advocate General who tried to justify the payment less than the minimum wages.

Adjourned

The judge gave him a piece of his mind and adjourned the contempt cases and the writ petition case by two weeks hoping that good sense will prevail on the officers.

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