The Union Rural Ministry on Tuesday issued a clarification on the news published by some section of the media that December data for first 17 days is the lowest ever in terms of employment generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005. The MGNREGA Scheme is a demand driven scheme and such comparison is not as per the spirit of the Act, the ministry stated.
The ministry stated in a release that in the current financial year, so far, over 261 crore person-days have been generated as per the demand by the beneficiaries. During the FY 2019-20 for the period April to November, more than 175 crore person-days got generated, in the same period of previous year more than 276 crore person-days got generated and in the current FY during the same period more than 255 crore person-days got generated.
The ministry explains further: The work done in a particular month is counted against the MR filled up during the month. The scheme allows seven days’ window for the entry of the data. Thus, full data of December is usually available about 10 days into the next month. Thus, a comparison based on the data for the first 17 days takes into account the person-days that have been generated during a minor fraction of December. As per the provision of the Act, the data entry for the works which would get completed in the last week of December 2021 will be reflected in the second week of January 2022.
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It may also be mentioned that during November 2019, a total of 16.92 crore person days were generated, in the same month of last year over 23 crore person-days got generated and in November 2021, more than 22 crore person-days got generated, the ministry states.
The ministry further clarifies: Fund release towards wage and material is a continuous process. There has been an increase of more than 18 per cent of funds allocation for the current financial year in comparison to previous financial year as budget estimate. During the current FY, so far, more than Rs 74,388 crore funds have been released for the implementation of the scheme in the States/UTs.
Whenever, additional fund is required, the Finance Ministry is requested to provide the funds. Recently, the ministry allocated additional funds of Rs 10,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA as an interim measure. Further, allocation may be made upon assessment of demand during the RE stage. The Union government is committed to funds for wage and material payments for proper implementation of the scheme, as per the provisions of the act and guidelines applicable for Central Government as well as state governments, the ministry added.
