LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, Dec 14: The Union Government owes around Jharkhand Rs 162.5 Cr as wages under the employment guarantee scheme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). This was revealed in the responses to Lok Sabha Trinamool Congress MP Mala Roy. She had asked about dues pending to the State Governments under the MGNREGA scheme.
Notably, the central government needs to pay over Rs 7,000 Cr to the states for the employment guarantee scheme under MGNREGA. Of this, Rs 3,207.43 cr is pending for material components under the scheme and Rs 4,447.92 cr is pending as wages.
In the case of wages, the Centre owes West Bengal Rs 2,744 cr until 30th November 2022. This is followed by Kerala to which the union government owes Rs 456 cr. The union government owes Tamil Nadu 210 cr, Assam Rs 196 cr, Nagaland Rs 183 cr and Jharkhand Rs 162.5 cr as wages.
Drawing attention towards the conditions of workers in West Bengal, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha’s Debmalya Nandy said that the centre has not released wages to West Bengal since December last year, which means the workers are unpaid for almost a year now in the state.
“It is pure vendetta politics by the government due to which the workers keep suffering. Out of the Rs, 4,447 cr pending in wages West Bengal’s share is 2744 cr according to the response by the govt in parliament. This is unacceptable,” he added.
The union government owes Karnataka Rs 540 cr the maximum amount as liabilities for the material component under the scheme. This is followed by West Bengal, to whom the government owes Rs 457.06 cr, then Maharashtra (Rs 304.83 cr).
Notably, for 2022–2023, the Center has earmarked Rs 73,000 crore for the scheme to guarantee rural jobs. Although it was later amended to Rs 98,000 cr, the budgetary allocation for the scheme in the fiscal year 2021–2022 was also Rs 73,000 cr. The amount spent in the preceding fiscal year was Rs 1,11,170.86 crore.
Meanwhile, according to the MGREGA website, the states have already received about 62.5K cr of the overall 73 billion rupee allotment, and almost 70K cr have already been spent. Nandy emphasised that the government’s response demonstrates the consequences of insufficient budgeting.
The government has now slowed down the implementation to rationalise the allocation, highlighted Nandy, and added that until a supplementary allocation is made the programme won’t gain momentum at all in the last three remaining months of the financial year.
The MGNREGA workers must receive their wages within 15 days from the date the task was completed, according to the Act. Workers are entitled to delay compensation of 0.05 percent of the unpaid wages per day for the duration of the delay if there is a payment delay.
The union government’s excessive delay runs counter to the fundamental meaning of an employment guarantee, which required that work be assigned based on demand and that payments were made on schedule in accordance with the Act.
“It is entirely illegal for the government to withhold delay payments for payments that are still owed to them. It is crucial that the government set aside at least Rs 1.5 lakh crore as the budgeted estimate for 2023–2024 in order to guarantee continued operations, according to Nandy.
The budget for the current fiscal year 2022–2023 is a pitiful 0.3 percent of GDP. As a percentage of overall government spending, the MGNREGA budget has similarly declined since FY 2021–22 and is now at 1.85 percent for FY 202–22, or roughly half its level in FY 2020–21 (3.65 percent). According to World Bank estimates, the allocation must be at least 1.6 percent of the GDP for the programme to operate effectively.
On the other hand, MGNREGA activists believe that there is an immediate need for supplementary allocations, a need for delayed compensation to be paid from the Centre when it’s delayed from their end and adequacy in budget allocation.
The union government had recently constituted a committee headed by former Rural Development Secretary and advisor in the PMO Amarjeet Sinha to recommend structural and other reforms required in the scheme.
