Raghav Reddy, a daily wage labourer from Warangal district in Andhra Pradesh no longer goes to Hyderabad in search of livelihood. Raghav had to migrate every year as the amount he used to earn was too meager to support his family of six members for an entire year.

The average daily wage given to agricultural worker was around Rs 40?Rs 50 per day, two years back while the prescribed state agricultural wage was Rs 80 per day.

With the introduction of UPA government?s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which guarantees 100 days of manual labour to each rural household near their place of residence, things have changed.

?We are finding it increasingly difficult to source labour,? said cotton farmer Malegoan Subrao. Implementation of NREGA has force farmers like Subrao to pay more wage for carrying out agricultural activities as people now have option to work in NREGA works.

According to rural development ministry data, till October this year Andhra Pradesh has already spent more than Rs 1,850 crore out of the total budget allocation of Rs 16,000 crore under the NREGA .

The two crores agricultural workers like Raghav, across the country have been getting the prescribed daily minimum wage for working in the NREGA works. ?Prior to the introduction of NREGA, the agricultural wage used to be well below the minimum wage prescribed by the respective state governments,? Rita

Sharma, secretary department of rural development told FE.

According to the data compiled by rural development ministry, in states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Orissa, there has been significant rise in prescribed daily wage rates given to agricultural labourers following the introduction of the act. The data revealed the average daily manual wage has risen from Rs 65 two years back to Rs 85 at present. ?The states are forced to revise the prescribed daily wage rate as there has been acute shortage of labour in taking up agricultural activities specially during sowing and harvesting months,? Sharma said.

In Haryana, the official minimum daily wage has been revised from Rs 90 two years back to Rs 135 at present. Uttar Pradesh has also revised the minimum daily wage from Rs 58 to Rs 100 while states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa have revised their daily wage upward. (see table)

Even in Jharkhand the daily wage has been revised from Rs 78 to Rs 85 per day. Maharashtra also has revised the daily wage rate to Rs 55 to Rs 75. Gujarat, the only state which did not revise the wage rate, is learnt to be in the process of revising it too.

Since its launch in February 2008, the government has spend more than Rs 40,000 crore under NREGA, out of which Rs 26,000 crore is towards payment of wages. Close to 20 lakh jobs mostly relating to water conservation have been taken up under NREGA.