The Minister of State for Rural Development Shri Sudarshan Bhagat said that since the start of the programme, the expenditure on the programme has amounted to Rs. 3,13,844.55 crore and out of this 71% has been spent on wage payments to workers.
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Surjewala claimed the number of families getting 100 days of guaranteed work under fixed minimum wages, had been “systematically brought down by half”.
Mr. Harichandan said Odisha could have easily benefited the most from MGNREGA, but due to its poor implementation, distress migration of poor workers has gone up over the years.
“Government has spent maximum of the funds allocated for the scheme in the last financial year in comparison what was done in last five years”. “When a government scheme runs for many years, an attitude of indifference develops towards it. A kind of indifference towards it was growing by 2013-14, when the scheme had entered its seventh and eighth years, ” he said. “We all are part of this program and we have a duty to carry out the instructions of this mandate for the development and betterment of our society”, she told the attendees.
Government is planning a big push to rural employment generation through increased public spending in sectors like roads, electrification, health, education and irrigation to spur growth, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday.
In the past, many social sector schemes recorded lower spending because of cuts in their allocations after resources had been earmarked to fund them in the annual budget.
Terming Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as a gift of his United Progressive Alliance government, he said the people should rise to ensure that National Democratic Alliance government does not tinker with the effectiveness of the scheme.
“If budgetary allocations in UPA II and the NDA had only kept pace with real expenditure levels from 2010, the whole programme would have had a real opportunity to expand in scope, reach, and effect”. But when Modi took the reins into his hands, the allocation was increased to Rs 34,000 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 35,000 crore for 2015-16.
“MGNREGA is the best job guarantee scheme of UPA Government”.
“Over eight crore families have been given employment under MGNREGA scheme, and we plan to target 11 crore families next year”, he added.
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Gandhi’s reference was to Prime’s Minister snide remarks about the UPA flagship scheme during the Budget Session a year ago. Those who were never thought about were given the guarantee to get work. “Timely release of funds to states to provide work on demand, an electronic fund management system, and consistent coordination between banks and post offices, besides monitoring of pendency of payments, have led to the revival of NREGS”, Singh said. He lamented that a lot of poor people in rural areas want work under the plan, but political workers hardly help them.
