4. Employment Guarantee Schemes for rural areas.
(1) For the purposes of giving effect to the provisions of section 3, every State Government shall,
within six months from the date of commencement of this Act, by notification, make a Scheme, for
providing not less than one hundred days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to every
household in the rural areas covered under the Scheme and whose adult members, by application,
volunteer to do unskilled manual work subject to the conditions laid down by or under this Act and
in the Scheme: Provided that until any such Scheme is notified by the State Government, the Annual
Action Plan or Perspective Plan for the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) or the National
Food for Work Programme (NFFWP) whichever is in force in the concerned area immediately before
such notification shall be deemed to be the action plan for the Scheme for the purposes of this Act.
(2) The State Government shall publish a summary of the Scheme made by it in at least two local
newspapers, one of which shall be in a vernacular language circulating in the area or areas to which
such Scheme shall apply.
(3) The Scheme made under sub-section (1) shall provide for the minimum features specified in
Schedule I.
5.Conditions for providing guaranteed employment.
(1) The State Government may, without prejudice to the conditions specified in Schedule II, specify
in the Scheme the conditions for providing guaranteed employment under this Act.
(2) The persons employed under any Scheme made under this Act shall be entitled to such facilities
not less than the minimum facilities specified in Schedule II.
6. Wage rate.-(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (11 of
1948), the Central Government may, by notification, specify the wage rate for the purposes of this
Act: Provided that different rates of wages may be specified for different areas: Provided further
that the wage rate specified from time to time under any such notification shall not be at a rate less
than sixty rupees per day. (2) Until such time as a wage rate is fixed by the Central Government in
respect of any area in a State, the minimum wage fixed by the State Government under section 3 of
the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (11 of 1948) for agricultural labourers, shall be considered as the
wage rate applicable to that area.
7. Payment of unemployment allowance.-(1) If an applicant for employment under the Scheme is
not provided such employment within fifteen days of receipt of his application seeking employment
or from the date on which the employment has been sought in the case of an advance application,
whichever is later, he shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance in accordance with this
section. (2) Subject to such terms and conditions of eligibility as may be prescribed by the State
Government and subject to the provisions of this Act and the Schemes and the economic capacity of
the State Government, the unemployment allowance payable under sub-section (1) shall be paid to
the applicants of a household subject to the entitlement of the household at such rate as may be
specified by the State Government, by notification, in consultation with the State Council: Provided
that no such rate shall be less than one-fourth of the wage rate for the first thirty days during the
financial year and not less than one-half of the wage rate for the remaining period of the financial
year. (3) The liability of the State Government to pay unemployment allowance to a household
during any financial year shall cease as soon as- (a) the applicant is directed by the Gram Panchayat
or the Programme Officer to report for work either by himself or depute at least one adult member
of his household; or (b) the period for which employment is sought comes to an end and no member
of the household of the applicant had turned up for employment; or (c) the adult members of the
household of the applicant have received in total at least one hundred days of work within the
financial year; or (d) the household of the applicant has earned as much from the wages and
unemployment allowance taken together which is equal to the wages for one hundred days of work
during the financial year. (4) The unemployment allowance payable to the household of an applicant
jointly shall be sanctioned and disbursed by the Programme Officer or such local authority (including
the Panchayats at the district, intermediate or village level) as the State Government may, by
notification, authorise in this behalf. (5) Every payment of unemployment allowance under subsection (1) shall be made or offered not later than fifteen days from the date on which it became
due for payment. (6) The State Government may prescribe the procedure for payment of
unemployment allowance under this Act.
8. Non-disbursement of unemployment allowance in certain circumstances.-(1) If the Programme
Officer is not in a position to disburse the unemployment allowance in time or at all for any reason
beyond his control, he shall report the matter to the District Programme Coordinator and announce
such reasons in a notice to be displayed on his notice board and the notice board of the Gram
Panchayat and such other conspicuous places as he may deem necessary. (2) Every case of nonpayment or delayed payment of unemployment allowance shall be reported in the annual report
submitted by the District Programme Coordinator to the State Government along with the reasons
for such non-payment or delayed payment. (3) The State Government shall take all measures to
make the payment of unemployment allowance reported under sub-section (1) to the concerned
household as expeditiously as possible.
9. Disentitlement to receive unemployment allowance in certain circumstances.-An applicant who-
(a) does not accept the employment provided to his household under a Scheme; or (b) does not
report for work within fifteen days of being notified by the Programme Officer or the implementing
agency to report for the work; or (c) continuously remains absent from work, without obtaining a
permission from the concerned implementing agency for a period of more than one week or
remains absent for a total period of more than one week in any month, shall not be eligible to claim
the unemployment allowance payable under this Act for a period of three months but shall be
eligible to seek employment under the Scheme at any time