Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure the release of the remaining Central share of MGNREGA funds to the State as per the 2014-15 budget. To ensure the effective implementation of MGNREGA and provide employment to all the wage seekers, the Chief Minister in a communication to Prime Minister has expressed his concern about the non-availability of funds to the State under the scheme. He has requested him to issue necessary directions to the concerned Ministry for releasing the State share at the earliest.
The Chief Minister said that the Centre had approved Rs761.71 crore labour budget to the State for the year 2014-15 under MGNREGA, out of which Rs670.71 crore was Central share. Rs740.58 crore was required for current financial year but the Centre had so far released only Rs355.43 crore to the State.
He urged the Prime Minister to release remaining amount for the successful implementation of the scheme. Virbhadra Singh said the state government was implementing MGNREGA in an effective manner and during the last financial year, the state spent Rs 571.22 crore under the scheme by generating 282.47 lakhs man-days against the approved labour budget of Rs 273.19 lakh man-days. The state had achieved 103 percent of the labour budget projection during last financial year with sufficient availability of funds provided by the Centre under the scheme.
The state had already started implementation of MGNREGA as per approved labour budget said the Chief Minister adding that the substantial reduction in the central allocation would adversely affect the implementation of the scheme in Himachal. Moreover, the paucity of funds would also result into the non-adherence to the legal provisions mandated in the act, he added.