Members of Parliament and State Assemblies from Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar besides activists have alleged that fund shortage under MNREGA is causing a grave situation of rural distress in the country. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they urged him to renew his Government’s political commitment to the rural job flagship scheme.
On Friday, MPs including Karan Singh Yadav, Rajeev Gowda and K Raju, MLAs like Jignesh Mewani and Prithiviraj Chavan and members of the Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, Samruddha Bharat Foundation and prominent economists and activists like Jayati Ghosh, Prabhat Patnaik, Aruna Roy and Harsh Mandar shared with media persons their concerns and measures needed for strengthening MGNREGA as a concrete response to the grave situation of rural distress in the country.
They pointed out that as per the Management Information System (MIS), 99 per cent of this year’s allocation is already exhausted and no additional funds have been approved. With the lean agricultural season beginning, demand for work will increase but the programme is starved of funds.
Deepender Singh Hooda, Lok Sabha MP from Haryana, pointed to the severe decline in the scale of work as a consequence of fund shortage while K Raju from the Congress party said that the scheme will be implemented in a mission mode in the States headed by his party. Hooda said, “The decline in MGNREGA work is astronomical. This year, only 26 households got work of 100 days”.
According to the Government’s own estimates, the allocation of MGNREGA as a percentage of GDP has declined from 0.51 per cent in 2010-11 to 0.38 per cent in 2017-18. Rajeev Gowda, Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka dwelled on payment of wages saying that the State government is yet to get the central fund Rs 1,500 crore to be paid to lakhs of workers.
Contrary to the government's claims of more than 90 per cent of wages paid within 15 days, a recent study has found that only 21 per cent of payments in 2016, and 32 per cent of payments in the first half of 2017 were made within 15 days, the members said.
“If there were adequate funds and payments were made on time, lakhs of more workers would demand employment. In fact, FIRs are being filed against us to discourage workers from demanding work under the programme,” alleged Sanjay Sahni, an activist from Muzaffarpur, Bihar.