The fact that the budget for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been exhausted within six months of the ongoing financial year indicates the “deepening rural distress” and “rising inequality” across the country, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh has said.
The Hindu reported on Saturday that six months into the financial year, the MGNREGS has run out of funds and is running a deficit of ₹6,146.93 crore. The Ministry of Rural Development had asked for a supplementary budget of ₹23,000 crore to meet the shortfall, but so far there is no word on it. A total of ₹60,000 crore was sanctioned for the scheme for 2023-24, which was 18% lower than the ₹73,000 crore budget estimates and 33% lower than the ₹89,000 crore revised estimates for the financial year 2022-23.
‘Wages delayed’
Quoting The Hindu story, Mr. Ramesh in a long post on X, compared and contrasted the MNREGS budget deficit with the sales of automobiles during April-September this year, where 48% of sales were in the SUV segment. “This not only clearly indicates the deepening rural distress and rising inequality across the country, but also demonstrates the Modi government’s priorities, which is indirectly suppressing demand for MGNREGA work by inordinately delaying wage payments,” he said.
Mr. Ramesh also added that the recent push towards digitisation was also affecting the programme. “To make matters worse, the Modi government has forced digitisation in the name of transparency while actually using it as a tool to discourage demand for MGNREGA among those who genuinely need the programme,” he said.
