RTI for MGNREGA Wages and Records Under VB-G RAM G

The law changed on 1 July 2026. The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, 2005 stands repealed and the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 governs, with a guarantee of 125 days of wage employment a year under section 5(1). Wages are due weekly, and never later than a fortnight after the work was done, under section 5(3). If your wages are late, the records that prove it already exist.

1. Write a one-page request to the Gram Panchayat for copies of the muster rolls, measurement record and wage list against your Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Card number. Cite Schedule I, paragraph 32. Keep a dated copy.
2. Ask for a dated acknowledgement. Paragraph 28(b) makes one compulsory for every grievance, written or oral.
3. Photograph your card, both sides. Schedule II, paragraph 1(7) requires it to carry days demanded, days allocated, muster roll number, measurement details, wages paid date-wise and delay compensation paid.
4. Open vbgramg.dord.gov.in and note what it shows for your panchayat.
5. Mark three working days, when copies fall due, and day 15, when an unresolved grievance escalates under paragraph 28(l).
6. Draft your RTI only if the copies do not arrive. The template is below.

• Day 0. Written request to the Gram Panchayat under Schedule I, paragraph 32 for muster rolls, measurement record, wage list and Fund Transfer Order details. Free of cost.
• Day 3. Copies or extracts fall due, three working days from receipt.
• Day 3 if refused. Lodge a grievance under paragraph 28. Disposal is due in seven working days, resolution in 15 days.
• Day 7. File RTI under section 6 with the Public Information Officer of the office holding the record. No reason need be given, under section 6(2).
• Day 37. The reply is due in 30 days under section 7(1), or 48 hours where life or liberty is at stake.
• Appeals. First appeal in 30 days under section 19(1). Second appeal to the State Information Commission in 90 days under section 19(3).
• In parallel. Scheme appeals run Gram Panchayat to Programme Officer to District Programme Coordinator to the State Grievance Redressal Authority, and each District has an Ombudsperson under paragraph 29.
• You do not need a lawyer, and below the poverty line you pay no RTI fee.

1. Write the paragraph 32 request first. It is free and faster than RTI.
2. Quote your card number and the financial year. That is the key to every register.
3. Ask for records, not reasons. A muster roll cannot be refused. An opinion can.
4. Take the dated acknowledgement. Every deadline runs from receipt.
5. Claim the delay compensation in the same breath, and diarise days 3, 15, 30 and 90.

Schedule I, paragraph 32 is the widest access route in the Act. All accounts and records including muster rolls are open to public scrutiny free of cost, and copies or extracts are due not later than three working days from receipt of the application. The records that exist, and that you can ask for:

• Muster rolls. Schedule I, paragraph 15 requires each to be digital, in English and the local language, with a unique e-muster identity number. Paragraph 15(b) requires biometric attendance recorded daily and open to public viewing through the management information system.
• Measurement record. Paragraph 16(1) requires measurement at the worksite by authorised technical personnel within three days of muster roll closure.
• Wage lists and Fund Transfer Orders. Schedule II, paragraph 6(3) names the five stages of wage processing, each with a time limit and a responsible functionary.
• Card entries. Schedule II, paragraph 1(7) lists what your card must record, including date-wise wages and delay compensation paid.
• Delay data. Schedule II, paragraph 6(7) requires days of delay and compensation payable and paid to be reflected in the management information system.
• Social audit records. Section 20(3) requires the Gram Panchayat to make available muster rolls, bills, vouchers, measurement books, sanction orders and geo-tagged photographs.
• Weekly disclosures. Schedule I, paragraph 25(2) requires a Janata Board at every worksite and weekly disclosure meetings in the Gram Panchayat Bhawan.

• Village and panchayat aggregates of employment provided and wages paid, which paragraph 25(2)© already requires to be displayed.
• File notings on your own case. Factual portions are disclosable. Deliberative opinion may be withheld.

• Aadhaar numbers of any individual. Schedule II, paragraph 1(4) records them only where they exist, and they are not part of public scrutiny.
• Personal information of other workers with no relationship to any public activity, under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, subject to the public interest override in section 8(2).

Paragraph 32 puts muster rolls and accounts in the public scrutiny category by statute. A refusal treating your own muster roll as third-party personal information misreads the Act. Say so in writing.

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin Act, 2025, Act 36 of 2025, was published in the Gazette of India on 21 December 2025. S.O. 2382(E) of 11 May 2026 appointed 1 July 2026 as the date it came into force in all States and Union territories. The Ministry of Rural Development states in its FAQ of 11 May 2026 that the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA stands repealed from that date.

• Section 5(1) guarantees not less than 125 days of employment per household in a financial year, and section 5(2) entitles the worker to the wage rate for each day worked.
• Section 5(3) requires disbursement weekly, or in any case not later than a fortnight after the date the work was done.
• Section 11(1) gives a daily unemployment allowance where work is not provided within 15 days of the application. The proviso to section 11(2) sets a floor of one-fourth of the notified wage rate for the first 30 days, and one-half thereafter.

Schedule I, issued under section 8(3), sets the minimum features of the scheme. Paragraph 15 covers muster rolls, 16 measurement, 25 transparency and social audit, 28 grievance redressal, 29 the Ombudsperson and 32 free public scrutiny.

Schedule II, issued under section 9(2), covers the worker's own paperwork. Paragraph 1 governs the Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Card, valid for three years. Paragraph 2 governs the demand for work, which may be oral or written and must be registered with a dated receipt. Paragraph 6 governs wage payment and delay compensation. Paragraph 7 requires payment into each worker's own account at a Bank or Post Office. Paragraph 9 requires the Gram Panchayat to keep the registers and vouchers.

These are paragraphs of the Schedules, not sections of the Act. Section 28 of the Act is a power to delegate, so citing it as a grievance provision is an error worth avoiding.

• Section 6(1) lets any citizen apply in writing or electronically, in English, Hindi or the local language. Section 6(2) bars the PIO from asking why.
• Section 7(1) sets 30 days. Its proviso sets 48 hours where life or liberty is concerned.
• Proviso to section 7(5) bars any fee from a person below the poverty line. Section 7(6) makes the information free where the authority misses the time limit.
• Section 19(1) gives a first appeal in 30 days. Section 19(3) gives a second appeal in 90 days. Section 19(8)(b) lets the Commission require compensation for loss or detriment.
• Section 20(1) provides a penalty of 250 rupees a day on the PIO, capped at 25,000 rupees.

Schedule I, paragraph 25(2)(e) of the 2025 Act requires Ministry and State websites to comply with section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act, with all information in free downloadable electronic form. The two statutes are built to work together.

In Swaraj Abhiyan v. Union of India, decided on 18 May 2018 in Writ Petition Civil No. 857 of 2015, the Supreme Court dealt directly with delay in paying rural employment wages and with the failure to pay the compensation the law required. An earlier order of 13 May 2016 in the same matter recorded that denying workers their legitimate dues is a clear constitutional breach by the State, and directed that compensation be paid to workers whose wages were delayed beyond 15 days.

Both judgments construed paragraph 29 of Schedule II of the repealed 2005 Act, carried into the new Act almost word for word as Schedule II, paragraph 6. The reasoning therefore still reads onto the current text, and that is the sense in which the case remains useful. It is not authority on the 2025 Act, which no court has yet construed.

Photograph the Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Card front and back. Note the card number, the financial year, the dates you worked, the worksite, and the account into which wages should have arrived under Schedule II, paragraph 7.

Write to the Gram Panchayat. One page. Cite Schedule I, paragraph 32. Ask for copies or extracts of the muster rolls, measurement record, wage list and Fund Transfer Order details for your card and financial year, and for the dated acknowledgement. Copies are due in three working days.

Schedule I, paragraph 28 sets out the mechanism. Grievances may be written, telephonic, online or oral, and a dated acknowledgement is compulsory. Enquiry by spot verification or inspection and disposal must be completed within seven working days, and the grievance resolved within 15 days. Failure to dispose in time is itself a contravention.

Address it to the Public Information Officer of the office holding the record. For muster rolls and card entries that is the Gram Panchayat or the Block office of the Programme Officer, who under section 18(1) is appointed at the intermediate panchayat and is not below the rank of Block Development Officer. For district records it is the District Programme Coordinator. Section 6(3) of the RTI Act requires a misdirected application to be transferred within five days.

1. Copies of the muster rolls for Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Card No. [..],
   [village and Gram Panchayat], financial year [..], showing the e-muster
   identity number, the dates of work and the days recorded.
2. The measurement record for each of those muster rolls, with the date and
   the designation of the technical personnel who took it.
3. The wage list for each muster roll, with its number and date.
4. The Fund Transfer Order number and the date it was uploaded, for each
   wage list.
5. The date wages were credited to the applicant's account, for each muster
   roll.
6. The days of delay and the delay compensation payable and actually paid,
   as reflected in the management information system under Schedule II,
   paragraph 6(7).
7. The stage-wise time limits and the functionary responsible for each
   stage, under Schedule II, paragraph 6(3).
8. Action taken on the applicant's request dated [..] under Schedule I,
   paragraph 32, and on the grievance dated [..].

Find the stage where your file stopped, against the five stages in Schedule II, paragraph 6(3). The same paragraph requires a responsible functionary for each stage, so the reply should name who is accountable.

If the answer is that records are not maintained, that contradicts Schedule II, paragraph 9 and Schedule I, paragraph 15. Put it in the first appeal.

Free of cost, under section 19(1) of the RTI Act, to the officer senior in rank to the PIO, within 30 days of the reply or of the expired deadline. Where the deadline was missed, add that the information must be supplied free under section 7(6).

Second appeal lies to the State Information Commission within 90 days under section 19(3). The Commission may impose the section 20 penalty and may require compensation under section 19(8)(b).

Run the scheme ladder in parallel. It is faster. Under Schedule I, paragraph 28(i) appeals lie from the Gram Panchayat to the Programme Officer, then to the District Programme Coordinator, then to the State Grievance Redressal Authority. They must be filed within 45 days and disposed of within 30 days. Each District also has an Ombudsperson under paragraph 29, who receives grievances, conducts enquiries and issues awards.

Wage rates are notified under section 10 of the Act and vary by State. S.O. 3518(E) of 30 June 2026 notified the rates in force from 1 July 2026. The schedule runs from 300 rupees a day in Sikkim to 450 rupees a day in the three named Gram Panchayats of Gnathang, Lachung and Lachen.

For a specific State, read the rate off the notification itself or off the state-by-state list on this site.

• Gazette notification of rates: S.O. 3518(E) of 30 June 2026
• State-by-state list: VB-G RAM G wage rates by State
• Scheme portal: vbgramg.dord.gov.in

No toll-free citizen helpline is published on the scheme portal, so this page does not print one. Use the written routes above, which create a record.

• Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Card number, with photographs of both sides.
• The financial year, the dates you worked and the worksite.
• Bank or post office passbook, front page and last entries.
• Your dated copy of the paragraph 32 request and its acknowledgement.
• The RTI application and proof of fee, or the below poverty line card if you claim the exemption.

• Going straight to RTI. Paragraph 32 gives the same records free in three working days. RTI takes 30.
• Asking why instead of asking what. A PIO can refuse an opinion. A PIO cannot refuse a muster roll.
• Citing the repealed Act. Section 3(3) of the 2005 Act no longer exists. The wage clock is section 5(3) and the compensation rule is Schedule II, paragraph 6(1).
• Citing sections 28, 29 and 32 of the Act for grievance, Ombudsperson and public scrutiny. Those are paragraphs of Schedule I.
• Not taking the dated acknowledgement. Every deadline in paragraph 28 runs from receipt, and paragraph 28(l) escalates an unresolved grievance at 15 days only if it was recorded.
• Forgetting to claim compensation. It is meant to be automatic, but it is worth asking for in writing.
• Missing the free-information rule. If the PIO blows the 30-day deadline, section 7(6) makes the information free.

No. Schedule I, paragraph 32 opens all accounts and records including muster rolls to public scrutiny free of cost, with copies or extracts due within three working days of your application. RTI is the fallback when that is refused or ignored.

The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, in force from 1 July 2026. The Ministry of Rural Development FAQ states that the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, 2005 stands repealed from that date. Citations to section 3(3) of the old Act are no longer good.

0.05 per cent of the unpaid wages per day of delay beyond the sixteenth day from closure of the muster roll, under Schedule II, paragraph 6(1). The State pays it upfront and recovers it from whoever caused the delay.

Weekly, and in any case not later than a fortnight after the work was done, under section 5(3). The compensation clock is separate and runs from 15 days after the muster roll closes.

The Public Information Officer of the authority holding the record. That is the Gram Panchayat for registers and card entries, the Programme Officer at the Block for the works and muster chain, and the District Programme Coordinator for district records. Section 6(3) requires a wrongly addressed application to be transferred within five days.

No. The proviso to section 7(5) of the RTI Act bars any fee from a person below the poverty line as determined by the appropriate Government. Carry the card.

The proviso to section 7(1) requires information concerning the life or liberty of a person to be provided within 48 hours. Say plainly in the application why it does.

That contradicts Schedule II, paragraph 9 and Schedule I, paragraph 15, which require the registers and digital muster rolls to exist. Put the contradiction in your first appeal.

Yes, and it is usually faster. Schedule I, paragraph 28 requires disposal in seven working days and resolution in 15 days. Appeals run to the Programme Officer, then the District Programme Coordinator, then the State Grievance Redressal Authority. Each District also has an Ombudsperson under paragraph 29.

An unemployment allowance under section 11(1), if work was not provided within 15 days of your application. The State sets the rate. The proviso to section 11(2) sets a floor of one-fourth of the notified wage rate for the first 30 days and one-half thereafter.

• A refusal that survives both the scheme appeal ladder and the second appeal, where a writ to the High Court is the remaining route.
• Evidence of financial irregularity at scale. Schedule I, paragraph 28(f) requires the District Programme Coordinator to ensure a First Information Report is lodged where prima facie evidence emerges from an enquiry or a social audit.
• Free legal aid runs through your District Legal Services Authority. The National Legal Services Authority publishes a toll-free helpline on 15100.

Yes. Schedule II, paragraph 6(1) entitles a wage seeker to 0.05 per cent of the unpaid wages per day of delay beyond the sixteenth day from closure of the muster roll. Paragraph 6(2) treats a delay in paying it the same way as a delay in paying wages.

Three features make it worth claiming in writing. Paragraph 6(4) requires the system to calculate it automatically from the closure date and the credit date. Paragraph 6(5) requires the State to pay it upfront and recover it from whoever caused the delay. Paragraph 6(7) requires the delay and the compensation to be reflected in the management information system, which makes it a record you can ask for.

For the calculation and the escalation path, see MGNREGA wage delay and compensation.

• AI RTI Drafter drafts a section 6 application from a plain description.
• AwaazRTI lets you speak the request in an Indian language.
• First Appeal Builder for when the PIO refuses or stays silent.
• Outcome Predictor scores a draft before you file.
• Sector RTI Toolkit carries pre-drafted templates.
• Citizen 360 maps civic information by PIN code.

• MGNREGA wage delay and compensation
• What replaced MGNREGA and what the 125-day guarantee means
• MGNREGA job card and payment status
• RTI for PM-KISAN Installment
• RTI for Ration Card Status
• RTI for PDS Grievance
• RTI for PMAY Beneficiary Status
• RTI for FIR Status
• RTI for Pension Fixation

• RTI Grounds for Rejection
• How to file an RTI online, central and state portals
• RTI Wiki helplines
• The RTI Playbook

• VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, Act 36 of 2025, Gazette of India 21 December 2025: full text
• S.O. 2382(E) of 11 May 2026, commencement: notification
• S.O. 3518(E) of 30 June 2026, wage rates: notification
• Ministry of Rural Development FAQ, 11 May 2026: PIB-hosted document
• Swaraj Abhiyan v. Union of India, 18 May 2018: judgment
• Swaraj Abhiyan v. Union of India, 13 May 2016: judgment
• Right to Information Act, 2005 on this site: the Act

The fastest route to your wage records is not RTI. It is Schedule I, paragraph 32, which opens every account and muster roll to free public scrutiny and puts copies on a three-working-day clock. Use it first, in writing, and keep the dated acknowledgement. If it is refused, paragraph 28 runs on seven and fifteen day limits, with the RTI Act behind both. The wage clock is section 5(3). The compensation clock is Schedule II, paragraph 6(1). Ask for records, not reasons.

1. Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin Act, 2025, Act 36 of 2025, sections 5, 8(3), 9(2), 10, 11, 18, 20(3), 25 and 27.
2. The same Act, Schedule I, paragraphs 15, 16, 25, 28, 29 and 32, and Schedule II, paragraphs 1, 2, 6, 7 and 9.
3. S.O. 2382(E) of 11 May 2026, appointing 1 July 2026 as the date of commencement.
4. S.O. 3518(E) of 30 June 2026, notifying state-wise wage rates.
5. Ministry of Rural Development FAQ of 11 May 2026, hosted on pib.gov.in.
6. Right to Information Act, 2005, sections 6, 7, 19 and 20.
7. Swaraj Abhiyan v. Union of India, Writ Petition Civil No. 857 of 2015, orders of 13 May 2016 and 18 May 2018.

Last reviewed on 11 September 2026.