NEW DELHI: Delayed payments, largescale deletion of names of workers and frequent technical glitches in several states continue to hobble the country’s flagship rural job guarantee programme, the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a coalition of several grassroots organisations, alleged on Thursday. NREGA workers from across the country gathered at Jantar Mantar today to demand adequate budget for MGNREGA and timely wage payments. (X/AnjaliB_) The coalition, which works with workers’ unions, also said wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Job Guarantee Scheme have not kept pace with inflation and demanded increasing daily wages to ₹800. On December 3, in a written reply in Lok Sabha, Union rural development minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said ₹661.50 crore worth of fund transfer orders for wages payable to workers were pending to states in 2024-25 till November 11. “The ministry has made concerted efforts to reduce delays in the payment of wages. A Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) on the timely payment process for direct payment into the account of beneficiaries was issued and its implementation by the States/ UTs is …