"No," Rural Development Minister Birender Singh said to a question in this regard but said "some instances of operation of middlemen in payment of wages through post offices have been reported".
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister said the government proposes to address these issues by using biometric authentication system as in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Jharkhand.
He said Post Offices are preferred in some states due to their better reach in the rural areas.
"Consequently, there are significant number of Gram Panchayats which do not have bank branches within 5 km radius. Efforts are made to improve the reach of the Banks in the rural areas using the Banking Correspondent model under the PM Jan Dhan Yojana," Singh said.
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Replying to another question, the Minister said as of now, no decision has been taken to change the wage material ratio under MNREGA.
For this purpose, an Intensive Participatory Planning Exercise (IPPE) has been prescribed to be conducted in 2,500 backward blocks, Singh said.
"However, there has been no change in the Labour Budget exercise in the remaining 4076 blocks. The existing principle or procedure of conducting the Labour Budget will continue in these blocks," he said.