House panel flags cut in NREGS budget, says scheme last resort for rural poor

“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 succor for the jobless section who don’t have any other means to feed them(selves) and their family members,” the committee headed by DMK member Kanimozhi noted.

The report stated: “The role and importance of MGNREGA was visible during the (Covid-19) pandemic, when it acted as a ray of hope for the needy in times of distress. The importance of the scheme got highlighted through the substantially huge increment at the RE stage in 2020-21 and 2021-22 from Rs 61,500 crore to Rs 1,11,500 crore, and Rs 73,000 crore to Rs 99,117.53 crore, respectively, to meet the increase in demand of work during the pandemic.

“Even during the ongoing Financial Year 2022-23, funds for MGNREGA have been increased to Rs 89,400 crore at RE stage from Rs 73,000 crore at the BE stage. However, for [FY] 2023-24, at the starting stage itself, MGNREGA has been allocated Rs 60,000 crore against the proposed demand of Rs 98,000 crore by the Department of Rural Development.”

The House committee’s report, however, mentioned that the panel is “unable to comprehend the rationale for reduced allocation of funds under MGNREGA”. It stated, “Since it is necessary that adequate Budgetary Allocation ought to be made for effective implementation of the scheme, the committee strongly feels the requirement for the matter of decreased fund allocation be looked afresh.”

“It is an established procedure that MGNREGA being a demand-driven scheme, funds can be raised at RE stage accordingly. However, [the] Ministry of Finance should have been impressed upon as to how the Department of Rural Development arrived at the calculation of Rs 98,000 crore at proposal level for MGNREGA…. Had it not been the projections received at the ‘agreed to Labour Stage’, such a proposal would not have been mooted at the outset by the Department of Rural Development,” the report noted.

Therefore, it stated, the Committee “strongly” recommends that the Department of Rural Development apprise itself of the still-existing high demand for jobs under MGNREGA at the ground level “more realistically, and utilise their communications and administrative skill to press upon the Ministry of Finance for increased allocation to MGNREGA”.

On the ministry’s latest move regarding mandatory attendance through the National Mobile Monitoring System App, the report said, “The Committee is not oblivious to the facts surrounding the necessity felt by the Department for introduction of a real-time attendance capturing app…However, the flip side of the exercise should not remain unnoticed…. The exercise of capturing two real-time photographs in a day hinges upon factors such as availability of smart-phones, proper internet connectivity and the presence of MGNREGA workers on both stipulated times for proverbial ‘in’ and ‘out’ attendance.”

Noting that MGNREGA beneficiaries belong to extremely deprived sections of the society, and come from different linguistic milieu, the report noted, “Expecting MGNREGA workers to be well-versed with the functioning and language of app, or for that matter even depending upon a nodal human intervention, perhaps adds to their woes.”

The report stated: “Moreover, often the fluid timings of work site necessitate the workers to keep waiting there even after completion of work for their image capturing. Adding to this conundrum is the issue of availability of internet connectivity at far-flung locales of MGNREGA work site….. In view of [this]…and with utmost concern, the committee urges upon the Department of Rural Development to review the implementation of attendance app holistically while taking into consideration the ground reality and challenges being faced by MGNREGA workers and come out with an acceptable provision at the earliest.”

The committee has recommended that the government should increase wage rates under MGNREGA by linking it to a suitable pricing index and explore the feasibility of notifying a uniform wage rate under MGNREGA for the entire country. Highlighting the demand to increase the number of days of guaranteed work under MGNREGA from the existing 100 days, the committee also said the Department of Rural Development should re-look into the possibility of increasing the number of guaranteed days of work.