Govt allocated 22 per cent less funds for MGNREGA in revised estimates for current fiscal: Parliamentary panel report

Quoting a written submission of the DoRD, the report stated, “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand-driven wage employment Scheme. There is an allocation of Rs. 60,000 crore at Budget Estimate (BE) stage under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS for the financial year 2023-24. The Ministry has released Rs. 56,423.38 crore during the current financial year 2023-24 (as on 13.10.2023) and balance amount of Rs. 3576.62 crore is with the Ministry of Rural Development. Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has proposed an amount of Rs. 1,10,000 crore as a Revised Estimate (RE) stage from Ministry of Finance for implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi NREG Scheme for the current financial year 2023-24.”

“With the current pace of persondays generation against demand for wage employment, an amount of Rs. 50,000 crore has been anticipated as additional fund in RE 2023-24 over and above BE of Rs. 60,000 crore,” the report quoted the DoRD submission.

However, in the Interim Budget 2024-25 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, the MGNREGA allocation has been revised upward to Rs 86,000 crore for the current financial year (2023-24).

The committee, headed by DMK member Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, also said that the demand from various quarters for raising the guaranteed number of days of work under MGNREGA from 100 to possibly 150 merits “due weightage”.

“The Committee find that the number of permissible works under MGNREGA has increased to 266. Also, the RE sought by DoRD for the ongoing Financial Year 2023-24 is Rs.1,10,000 crore. These aspects only strengthen the opinion that demand for work under MGNREGA has not diminished. Hence, the Committee find the demand from various quarters for raising the guaranteed number of days of work under MGNREGA from 100 to possibly 150 merits due weightage,” reads the report.

“Thus, the Committee recommend to DoRD to look into the issue with practical approach and undertake a study for reviewing the need and justifications for increasing the number of guaranteed days of work under MGNREGA from present 100 days to 150 days and necessary action may be taken according to the outcome of the study,” the report said.

Under MGNREGA, every rural household, whose adult member volunteers to do unskilled manual work, is entitled to get at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year. While, Section 3 (1) of the MGNREGA provides for “not less than one hundred days” work per rural household in a financial year, it has become de facto upper limit as the NREGAsoft does not allow data entries for employment above 100 days to a household in a financial year unless specifically requested by the State/UT.

In some cases the government, however, allows additional 50 days of wage employment (beyond the stipulated 100 days). For instance, every Scheduled Tribe household in a forest area is entitled to get 150 days’ work under MGNREGA, provided that such families have no other private property except for the land rights granted under the Forest Right Act, 2016.

Besides, the government, under Section 3(4) of the MGNREGA, can also provide an additional 50 days of unskilled manual work in a financial year, over and above the 100 day in such rural areas where drought or any natural calamity (as per Ministry of Home Affairs) has been notified.

The committee noted that daily wages paid under the MGNREGA are inadequate. “The committee finds the range of wages vary from as little as Rs 221 in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Rs 224 in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 228 in Bihar and Jharkhand to Rs 354 in the three gram panchayats of Sikkim (Gnathang, Lachung, and Lachen), Rs 328 in Nicobar and Rs 311 in Andaman,” it said.