A sum of ₹73,000 crore being allocated for the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the Union Budget, which is 25.51% less than the revised Budget for the previous year, has activists worried in Karnataka.
The Government had allocated the same amount for the job scheme in the last Budget and later increased it to ₹98,000 crore last October considering the sharp increase in demand for MGNREGA after migrant workers massively returned to their native places across rural India following the COVID-19-induced lockdown and began working under the job scheme.
“According to a recent study, the requirement is around ₹2.64 lakh crore. But, the Government allocated only ₹73,000 crore. Even in the allocated amount, as much as 20% would practically go into clearing the pending dues of the previous year which is no less than ₹21,000 crore. Lack of funds is likely to dry up MGNREGA’s financial support even quicker this year. Unemployment will strike hard in rural areas,” K. Neela, a leader of MGNREGA Labourers’ Association from Kalaburagi, said.
Abhay Kumar, a leader of Grameena Koolikaarmikara Sanghatane, said that inadequate funds to the job scheme would defeat its very purpose and end up in deepening rural distress.
“Migrant workers in large number have returned to their native villages after and during the last COVID-19 lockdown and they are not ready to go to cities as the construction activities have not yet taken off. MGNREGA has been one of their major sources of income back at home. The payment of wages under the scheme was delayed by 1-2 months on regular basis in the last year due to a financial crunch. Inadequate funds would push the rural labouring masses to further financial crisis this year and force them to suffer from malnutrition and starvation,” Mr. Kumar said.
