Two days after the Supreme Court pulled up Centre for not releasing adequate funds for the rural job flagship scheme MGNREGA, the Rural Development released its share of funds to the tune of `12,230 crore to the States.
The RD Ministry sources said this is the biggest amount for the scheme released in one go by the Centre so far. Union RD Minister Birender Singh said this fund release will take care of the pending wage liability of the States for the previous financial Year (2015-16) and help the States to run the programme during the new financial year (2016-17). He added Government is committed to ensuring flow of adequate resources for fulfilling the programme objectives.
The Supreme Court had on Wednesday pulled up the Centre for not releasing adequate funds to States for MGNREGA and asked it to give details of expenditure on the scheme in drought-hit States, saying relief has to be provided now and not after one year.
“If you are not releasing the funds, then no one will like to work. States will say they have no funds, so they can’t pay anyone for MGNREGA work. No state will make any commitment to the people,” a Bench headed by Justice MB lokur had said.
Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, had, then however, informed the bench that `7,983 crore will be released by the Centre in a couple of days towards wage liability, while `2,400 crore material liability will be cleared in June. She had said that `2,723 crore was being released as wage reliability for the drought affected States.
“In the year 2015-16, States were asked to provide employment where needed, particularly drought affected areas, with the assurance of making required resources available… The Ministry expanded the entitlement from 100 to 150 days of work to households in drought affected regions of ten States. 20.48 lakh households in these regions have availed this opportunity and completed more than 100 days of work. At the national level 44 lakh households have completed 100 days,” the Minister said in the statement and listed steps taken to bring down the delay in payment of wages and the road map of the Government for the scheme.
“To further bring down the delay in payment of wages, the ministry in line with the Cabinet decision has introduced National electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) in the current financial year. The road map for 2016-17 will focus on accelerating the momentum gained in employment generation while further strengthening the monitoring system,” Singh said.
Singh also said Government has decided to maintain a 60:40 wage-material ratio for the MGNREGA now at the district level instead of the panchayat level as was the case earlier. According to sources, the understanding in the government is that while some panchayats may require intensive labour- oriented work, there may be some others where asset creation has to be prioritised. Hence, computation of the wage-material ratio at the district level will facilitate both.