New Delhi: Amidst a 25.51% slash from the revised estimate of the current year in the Budget allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Union government told the Rajya Sabha that payment of workers’ wages to the tune of Rs 3,360 crore is pending.
MGNREGA is aimed at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment.
The government has said that the largest amounts of payments pending are in the states of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, The Hindu reported.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on February 1 that the Union government has allocated Rs 73,000 crore for the rural jobs guarantee programme for 2022-23. This is 25.51% less than the revised estimate for the current financial year.
Rs 73,000 crore was the amount allocated to the programme in last year’s budget too. This was later revised to Rs 98,000 crore on account of higher demand for the work. Allocation has thus remained stagnant.
Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, in a written response to Communist Party of India (Marxist) member John Brittas’s question on state-wise details on MGNREGS work given during the pandemic and pending wages noted that as on January 27, wage arrears stood at Rs 3,358.14 crore.
Workers from Bengal were owed Rs 752 crore. Those from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan had Rs 597 crore and Rs 555 crore in arrears, respectively.
Several quarters, including the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, have criticised the low allocation for the scheme.
The Morcha issued a statement criticising the government for its “ridiculously low budget allocation” for the national rural employment scheme.
“Notwithstanding rural distress, implementing NREGA is a legal obligation of the central government. However, the demand-driven nature of the Act has been repeatedly stifled in letter and spirit. By severe rationing of funds, it has been made a supply driven programme,” The Wire reported the Morcha having noted.