Parliament committee flags MGNREGA fund fall; Centre says not true

New Delhi: The Union government claims that there is no shortage of funds for the MGNREGA scheme, while a parliamentary standing committee itself raised concerns over the reduced fund allocation for the scheme, PTI reported.

In the report submitted to Rajya Sabha by the Standing Committee on Rural Development, it stated that the budget estimates for MGNREGS have been reduced by ₹ 29,400 crores for 2023-24 when compared to the revised estimates of 2022-23.

"The Act governing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme provides 'Right to Work' to such deprived sections of the rural populace who are willing to work. It is a last resort of succour for the jobless section who don't have any other means to feed them and their family members," the report said.

"The role and importance of MGNREGA were visible during the corona pandemic times when it acted as a ray of hope for the needy in times of distress," it stated.

However, the Centre claimed that the scheme is demand-driven and whenever needed, the allocations were increased.

It said, "There was an increase in the allocation in the previous two-three years because of the abnormal situations created due to Covid, the Ukraine war, and inflation... now the situation has normalised a bit. In 2020-21, the original budget was ₹ 61,000 crore."

"Since it is a demand-driven scheme when the need arose, it was enhanced to ₹ 1,10,000 crore. Whenever there is a need for extra money, we go to the Finance Ministry, and they allocate extra money for this. There is no dearth of money if the demand arises for wage employment," it said.

The committee had informed that it was concerned to note the continuous pendency in the disbursement of the Centre's share of funds under wages and material components of the scheme in respect of several states/Union Territories.

The information from the Department of Rural Development suggested that it has been observed that as on January 25, 2023, ₹ 6,231 crores in wages and ₹ 7,616 crore in the material component is a pending liability on the Centre's part, the committee said.

"The committee finds accrual of such liabilities as severe impediments hampering the beneficiaries' plight. The committee takes into account the plausible reasons that have been time and again cited by the Department of Rural Development for such types of pendencies such as non-receipt of documents," the report furthered.

"However, a scheme of such huge proportion like MGNREGA, which caters to the nook and corners of the country and has millions of beneficiaries enrolled as job card holders, such delay in wage payments and material fund release would only deter the needy person from availing the benefits under MGNREGA and would also cause them further turpitude for non-receipt of money when the sole intent of the scheme was to provide timely relief to poor in times of duress," it said.

Further, it said that there is the issue of unspent balance under MGNREGS during the last three years -- ₹ 2,913.32 crores (2019-20), ₹ 5,270.76 crores (2020-21) and ₹ 6,454.87 crore (2021-22).