The MoRD’s estimate was in view of the fact that demand for work from households has actually increased sinceOctober from around 14 million to over 17 million in January.
Provisioning inadequate funds at the start of a financial year and raising it tomeet the requirement at the revised estimate (RE) stage for the demand-driven Mahatma GandhiNational Rural Employment Scheme (MG-NREGS) has become a practice in the last few years.
For the current fiscal, an additional Rs 26,000 crore allocation at the RE stage in the interim Budget, from Rs 60,000 crore at the BE level, will still fall far short of meeting the anticipated demand unless workflow isregulated, going by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) ministry’s estimate. As per a report of the parliamentary standing committee on rural development and panchayat raj, tabledin Lok Sabha recently, the MoRD sought an additional Rs 50,000 crore allocation in RE 2023-24 forthe rural employment guarantee scheme, factoring into the anticipated demand for work. In a submission before the parliamentary panel, the MoRD, in October, said, “With the current pace ofperson-days generation against the demand for wage employment, an amount of Rs 50,000 crore hasbeen anticipated as an additional fund in RE 2023-24 over and above BE of Rs 60,000 crore.”
The MoRD’s estimate was in view of the fact that demand for work from households has actually increased sinceOctober from around 14 million to over 17 million in January. Similarly, demand for work from individualshas also increased from 22 million in October to nearly 24 million in January. MG-NREGS is a demand-driven scheme for enhancing the livelihood security of households in ruralareas by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment to every household whoseadult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work every financial year.
Against the Scheme’s mandate to provide at least 100 days of ‘wage employment’ in a financial year toevery rural household, a little over 47 days of work has been provided to every rural household so far. Inthe last fiscal year, a rural household received an average of 47.83 days of work.The Parliamentary panel has, in its recent report, made a scathing attack on the practice of providinglower allocation at the BE stage, citing the instance of the 2022-23 financial year when the initialallocation of Rs 73,000 crore was raised to Rs 89,400 crore at the RE stage.
“The reduction in budgetary allocation under the Scheme for the current financial year is puzzling andneeds to be looked into. In this regard, the Committee agree with the contention of DoRD that theMGNREG Scheme is a demand-driven scheme and the budgetary resources for it can be replenished ona need-basis. However, the pruning of funds at the BE stage itself does have a cascading effect onvarious important aspects, such as the timely release of wages, release of material share, etc., whichhave a telling impact on the progress of the Scheme,” the panel, headed by Janardan Mishra (actingchairperson), observed.
The Committee feels that for smooth implementation of MGNREGA at ground level, shortage of funds is abig obstacle which does not augur well for the performance of the Scheme. “In view of the foregoing, the Committee recommend that DoRD should look into the issue of shortage offunds under MGNREGA pragmatically and seek the requisite increase in the funds through properdemands from the Ministry of Finance for the effective implementation of the Scheme. Moreover, theMoRD should also try to convince the Ministry of Finance to allocate budgetary grant to MGNREGAbased on its expenditure pattern of previous years,” the Committee said.
Source:financialexpress.com