The State government on Wednesday told the High Court that it would clear the bills pertaining to the works undertaken under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) amounting to about ₹1,100 crore in a month and maintained that the State was yet to receive more than ₹400 crore from the Central government.
Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj & Rural Development) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi and Commissioner M. Girija Shankar and Principal Secretary (Finance) S.S. Rawat made the submission in person before a Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justice C. Praveen Kumar and Justice B. Krishna Mohan during hearing on a batch of petitions related to the alleged pending bills.
The Bench directed that complete details of the action taken be furnished before it by August 24, to which date the matter has been posted. The top officials of the government claimed to have settled more than 30% of the bills and that steps were taken to clear the balance in a phased manner.
Centre’s share
Meanwhile, the Central government, in its affidavit, said that nearly ₹4,335 crore had been released towards the wage component of the MGNREGS during the current year up to July 29, 2021 and further release of funds was subject to the availability of relevant documents from the State.
As per the Utilization Certificate (UC) provided by the State government as on April 1, 2021, the State had unspent funds under the material component to the tune of approximately ₹1,991 crore (including the Central release of ₹1,482 crore and State’s share ₹494 crore). The State was under the obligation to liquidate the previous year’s liability first.
Earlier, the High Court had directed the State government to furnish the details of the payments made village-wise and sought clarity from the Centre on its contribution to the scheme.
