The Modi Government on Monday indicated that it is contemplating to restrict the UPA’s flagship social sector scheme MNREGA only to the tribal and backward districts and withdraw it from the States enjoying higher per capita income in the country.
Union Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari said that MNREGA, guaranteeing up to 100 days of unskilled work in a year to every rural household, is not required in areas having high per capita income, higher growth rate and higher agricultural growth rate.
“It is required only in tribal sector and (areas of) poor,” Gadkari said at a Press conference convened to highlight the achievements of his Ministries during the first 100 days of the new Government.
As per Government’s latest survey, Delhi, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have a higher per capita income than other States
Sharing his views on MNREGA launched by the UPA Government in 2005, the Minister also stressed that MNREGA funds should be utilised for water conservation.
Sources in the Ministry said that if the plan is implemented, MNREGA might be implemented in the BIMARU States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh besides Odisha and Jharkhand where acute poverty is still prevalent. The situation becomes worse during droughts when farmers have no job but to look towards rural job scheme to sustain their livelihood.
Government has allocated around Rs33,000 crore for the scheme in 2014-15. However, since its implementation the scheme has been mired with controversy, corruption and mismanagement across the country. In fact, some states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were keen that the Act needed to be rethought and repealed to be converted into a scheme.
MNREGA had also come in for sharp criticism by the CAG in 2013 which had pinpointed serious anomalies in the scheme observing that the poorest of the poor were unable to get its benefits.
It also said that an analysis of releases made to states for the period April 2007 to March 2012 and poverty data showed that three states namely Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh with 46 per cent of the rural poor in India accounted for only 20 percent of the total funds released under the scheme.