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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | CSO disappointed with low MGNREGA allocation in the Union Budget 2022-23
CSO disappointed with low MGNREGA allocation in the Union Budget 2022-23

CSO disappointed with low MGNREGA allocation in the Union Budget 2022-23

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published Published on Feb 2, 2022   modified Modified on Feb 2, 2022

-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 2 February, 2022

Notwithstanding the rural distress, implementing NREGA is a legal obligation of the Central government. However, the demand-driven nature of the Act has been repeatedly stifled in letter and spirit. By severe rationing of funds, it has been made a supply driven programme. Today is NREGA diwas and while we are supposed to be celebrating the idea of rural employment guarantee, we are deeply pained that the programme is systematically undermined by ridiculously low budget allocation.

The total allocation outlay for the ministry of rural development has decreased by 12% in the Union Budget 2022-23, adding on to the existing distress of the rural economy. While for MGNREGA, despite revised estimates for the current financial year coming in at around Rs 98,000 crore, the budgetary allocation has stayed the same as last year, at Rs 73,000 crore. Out of this, about Rs.18,350 crore are pending liabilities from previous years. Therefore, only about Rs 54,650 cr is available for next year. 

If the government wants to provide legal guarantee of work to all the active job card holding households, which is 9.94cr, then considering the current budgetary estimate, it will only be able to provide some 16 days at per person per day average cost of Rs 334.

Since 2015-16, the annual budget allocation has never been sufficient to provide work to all those seeking employment under the program. In fact, every year about 80-90% of the budget gets exhausted within the first 6 months , resulting in heavy slowdown of work on the ground. The government has not been able to provide employment to all active job card holding families due to inadequate budget allocation. 

It is well known that NREGA has served as a lifeline for millions of  distressed households in the last couple of years and helped rural India cope with the unprecedented unemployment caused by the  unilaterally imposed  national lockdown in FY 2020-21. It has almost worked as a vaccine for unemployment in rural India which is still struggling to recover from enormous loss of lives and livelihoods. While in FY 2020-21 the central government ended up spending Rs.1.11 lakh crore for a record 11 crore workers from 7.5 crores households who worked under NREGA, in FY 2021-22, a 34% reduction in budget allocation caused much lesser employment generation on ground. The government later on added a supplementary budget of Rs. 25000 crore in view of the growing need for work across rural India. As of now 9.75 cr workers from 6.74 cr households have worked in NREGA this financial year despite frequent interruptions in implementation due to great delays in fund release from the centre. 

We have recommended in our pre-budget note that no less than Rs.3.62 lakh crore will be needed to ensure maximum employment generation for all active job card holding families. The Government has once again failed millions of it’s rural citizens who depend on the rural employment guarantee programme for meeting their life needs. 

We, members of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha express our deep disappointment  at this ridiculously low budget allocation for NREGA and we urge that the central government should take necessary actions within a month to allocate adequate funds for the programme. 

We also expect quick action to strengthen social audits across the nation and to ensure that independent social audits are regularized in all states, findings are put in public domain and timely actions are ensured against each irregularity.

Please click here to access the press release in PDF format.

For further information, please write to:

NREGA Sangharsh Morcha
Email: nrega.sangharsh.morcha@gmail.com

Or contact : 

Debmalya: 7294184845 | Anuradha: 9433002064 | Chakradhar: 9246522344 | 

Tapojay: 7718011678 | Mukesh: 9468862200 on behalf of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha. 

 

Image Courtesy: MKSS India


Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, 2 February, 2022


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