Even as the Centre on Monday asserted that it was committed to strengthening MNREGA and is taking all steps to ensure uninterrupted flow of funds for its implementation, activists have accused it of using Budget cuts to “rapidly dilute and undermine” the rural job guarantee scheme.
On the occasion of 10th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Jayati Ghosh of People’s Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) alleged that an implicit budget cap was being put on the scheme and that there had been delay in release of funds.
“The attack on MNREGA began before this Government. Since the new NDA Government has come, it has become more drastic and explicit. Although they are saying no budgetary cuts, actually things are different. There is a real attempt to shrink it further,” Ghosh told reporters here.
Nikhil Dey of ‘Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan’ said that with the Government all set to present the 2015 Union Budget, this trend of reducing budgetary support for programmes for the poor will have extremely “life debilitating and life threatening effect” on them while noted lawyer Indira Jaising emphasised that the MGNREGA is a law passed by the Parliament and a government cannot use administrative “subterfuge” and fund squeezes to undermine entitlements provided by the law.
At the function held to mark the MNREGA Day, Union Minister of Rural Development Birender Singh praised the performance of the scheme saying that focus is intensely on convergence of the rural job programme with other schemes to create durable and useful assets.