India
Today: Bhubaneswar: Thursday, 07 January 2016.
In an RTI
reply, the correspondence between the Ministry of Rural Development and the
Ministry of Finance reveals that as of December 30, 2015, 95 per cent of the
funds allocated for the programme have already been spent.
The Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) continued to face an
acute shortage of funds even in 2015, revealed letters from ministries obtained
through RTI by civil societies - a group of NGOs. In an RTI reply, the
correspondence between the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of
Finance reveals that as of December 30, 2015, 95 per cent of the funds
allocated for the programme have already been spent.
"At
present, the following 12 states have a negative balance; Andhra Pradesh,
Assam, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Nagaland,
Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh. With less than 5 per cent of funds
left with Centre, this means long overdue unpaid wages for workers, and the
closure of the MNREGA in these states for the next couple of months. Other
states are also making demands based on approved labour budgets that are far
higher than what is available," said Jayati Gosh, senior economist
associated with civil society.
"The
ministry has stated in a letter that an additional Rs 13,200 crores is required
to meet estimated demand for the rest of the year. It also is of the opinion
that an estimated Rs 6,757 crores is available as total unspent balance lying
with states. However, since data entry is lagging behind it is likely that
these balances will in fact be much lower and that the requirements are likely
to be greater than the Rs 5,000 crore being asked for," said Aruna Roy,
Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). In his Budget speech, Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley had promised an additional `5000 crore, and there is no allocation
of the same even though the funds with the MoRD have finished.
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