New Delhi: A House panel has recommended to the central government that the number of workdays under the flagship rural employment Act (MGNREGA) be increased from 100 to 150 during any given financial year, heeding to a longstanding demand of civil society.
The panel, headed by DMK MP Kanimozhi, tabled the report on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Parliament Thursday.
The parliamentary standing committee on rural development urged the Ministry of Rural Development to look into the issue “with practical approach and undertake a study for reviewing the need and justifications for increasing the number of guaranteed days of work under MGNREGA from present 100 days to 150 days and necessary action may be taken according to the outcome of the study”.
The House panel referred to the revised budget of Rs 1,10,000 crore sought by the ministry for the fiscal year 2023-24.
The Centre approved Rs 86,000 crore as revised budget for the current fiscal, and increased the number of works permitted under the scheme while emphasising on the need for a policy relook.
“The rationale behind such demand stems from the fact that the population of the country has been rising since the inception of MGNREGA in 2006 and so has the ambit of works under MGNREGA,” the House panel said.
The committee said dovetailing of labour-oriented projects such as Pradan Manti Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and other schemes of states with MGNREGA would be a “win-win situation”, as the expenditure on labour force required for various projects can be “better channelised and utilised”.
“The committee opined that the scale of MGNREGA can be fine-tuned by utilising its labour force through proper mechanism. Increasing the guaranteed number of days shall act as an incentive to work under MGNREGA,” the report said.
While activists also say the number of work days should be increased, they stressed it could be done only if adequate funds were allocated for the scheme.
In the last three financial years, the total expenditure on the scheme has been more than Rs 1 lakh crore each year. The expenditure in FY 2022-23 was Rs 1.01 lakh crore while it was Rs 1.06 lakh crore in FY 2021-22 and Rs 1.11 lakh crore in FY 2020-21.
Chakradhar Budhha, senior researcher with LibTech India, said, “The increase in the number of work days will help unskilled workers in rural areas, but this is possible only if the overall budget is increased. Over the years, we have seen that the government is reducing the budget allocation as a percentage of GDP.”
He added, “The government should consider the suggestion from economists at the World Bank to allocate 1.6 percent of GDP to MGNREGA. Additionally, for the number of days to be increased, the administrative expenditure should also be increased.”
The House panel also said in its report that the budgetary allocation to the scheme is inadequate.
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‘MGNREGA budget allocation inadequate’
In its report, the panel said the reduction in budgetary allocation under the scheme for the current financial year was “puzzling and needs to be looked into”.
In FY24, the Narendra Modi government had slashed the budget for MGNREGA by 33 percent to Rs 60,000 crore from the revised estimate of Rs 89,400 crore in the previous financial year. Though the budget for financial year 2024-25 was increased from Rs 60,000 crore to Rs 86,000 crore, activists said the funds would be insufficient to meet demand.
The panel also said, “The pruning of funds at BE (budget estimation) stage itself does have a cascading effect on various important aspects such as timely release of wages, release of material share etc. which have a telling impact on the progress of the Scheme. The Committee feels that for smooth implementation of MGNREGA at ground level, shortage of funds is a big obstacle which does not augur well for the performance of the scheme.”
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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