Jaipur: Serious irregularities have surfaced in the payment of wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) across Rajasthan.
    According to reports received from several districts, the labourers were paid a pittance even after toiling hard in hot weather conditions from April to June this year. The district officers concerned, cited technical reasons to justify the low remuneration to workers.
    The reports are related to payments made to MGNREGS workers in Jodhpur, Pali, Barmer, Ajmer and Tonk districts.
    In Tonk district, a group of 99 labourers were paid just Re 1 each for digging a water passage for 13 days in the Gudaliya village under the Roopwas panchayat.
    While the district collector argued that the payment was made in accordance with the work done by the labourers, social activists closely associated with the scheme called the payments