MGNREGA spending high, call for Rs 10,000 crore extra

In its 2016-17 budget, the finance ministry had allotted Rs 38,500 crore. As part of the first supplementary grant of demands, the ministry had released an additional Rs 5,000 crore — a third of the Rs 15,000 crore the MoRD had demanded to meet increased expenditure in drought-affected states.

“This time we have once again asked the finance ministry for Rs 10,000 crore. About Rs 12,581 crore of this Rs 15,000 crore is, in fact, the amount that was released by us from this year’s budget to clear the pending liabilities of last year. This is the money that is due to us,” said an MoRD official.

With a third of the country’s 600-odd districts being hit by severe drought in the run-up to the monsoons this year, so far 67 per cent of the government’s projected target of person-days of employment for the entire financial year has been reached. The wage employment guaranteed under MGNREGA provides an alternative source of rural income in the face of failing farm outputs and hence serves as a drought mitigation measure.

As against a target of 217 crore person-days of employment for the current financial year, 146 person-days have already been allotted. In states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh and Puducherry, the spurt in demand has led to an 80 per cent take-up of the person-days projected.

“After the increased expenditure and payment of arrears, the ministry is now left merely Rs 7,000 crore,” said the official.

A huge spike in demand for work has been recorded in most of the 13 drought-hit states that were listed in a Supreme Court petition on drought relief even though only six states had officially declared drought, making those states eligible for 150 days of work a year under MGNREGA as against the 100 days guaranteed otherwise under the scheme.

According to data, in the April-June 2015 quarter alone, the scheme generated 54 crore person-days of work. In the same quarter this year, 89 crore person-days were generated. The surge in demand for employment is the direct fallout of a poor rabi harvest in the months of April and May.