The Congress on Sunday lashed out at the government over keeping MGNREGS budget stagnant and said the "neglect" of this crucial safety net exposes its indifference to rural livelihoods. The allocation for flagship rural employment scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Development Scheme (MGNREGS) was Rs 86,000 crore, the same as last year.
In 2023-24, the allocation for MGNREGS was Rs 60,000 crore, but additional funds were provided and the actual expenditure stood at Rs 89,153.71 crore, the Budget document showed. No additional allocations for MGNREGS were made in 2024-25. In a post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that despite rising rural distress, the government has kept MGNREGA's budget stagnant at Rs 86,000 crore for 2024-26. This effectively represents a decline in the real (adjusted for price rise) allocations made to MGNREGA, he said.
"To add insult to injury, estimates suggest that about 20 per cent of the budget is paid towards clearing dues from previous years," Ramesh said. This effectively reduces MGNREGA's reach, leaving drought-hit and poor rural workers stranded, he added. It also precludes any increase in the wages paid to workers, Ramesh said.
"Even in this ongoing Financial Year, the minimum average notified wage rate was increased by only 7%. This is at a time when Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation is estimated to be 5%. MGNREGA is therefore ground zero for the national crisis of wage stagnation," he said. The Government's neglect of this crucial safety net exposes its indifference to rural livelihoods, Ramesh said.
The MGNREGS provides guaranteed 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to at least one member of every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. It keeps at least one-third of jobs for women. In the Covid pandemic year of 2020-21, when MGNREGS proved a lifeline in providing employment in rural areas amid huge reverse migration in the lockdown period, Rs 1,11,169 crore was spent on the scheme, according per previous budget documents.
