The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that Rs. 11,030 crore will be released to States within a week to run the MGNREGA programme, especially to generate employment in drought-hit areas. In an affidavit filed by the Rural Development Ministry, the government told the Supreme Court that the amount will take care of pending wage liability of Rs. 7,983 crore under the MGNREGA scheme as on March 31, 2016 pertaining to the financial year 2015-16.
“This includes the wage liability of Rs. 2723 crore in 10 drought affected States where the ministry has allowed additional 50 days of employment to households,” the affidavit said.
It said that as per the Annual Master Circular (2016-17) funds would be released to States and union Territories in two tranches.
“The first part of the first tranche will be released within one week in April 2016 and the second part of the first tranche in June 2016 after the regular budget is passed in the Parliament. The second tranche will be released to the States in October 2016 subject to fulfillment of conditions,” the ministry affidavit said.
It said since 95 percent of wages are credited electronically delay has been drastically cut down. Ministry officials told the court earlier in the day that they were able to provide up to 48 days of work to beneficiaries in 2015-16.
The affidavit was filed after the Centre was pulled up on April 6 by a Bench led by Justice Madan B. Lokur for not releasing sufficient funds to drought-hit States for employment generation under the MGNREGA scheme.
The Bench was hearing a PIL filed by Swaraj Abhiyan to treat the situation as a calamity and provide guidelines for the effective implementation of National Food Security, MGNREGA and basic water supply to drought-hit States in the country.
The court had said that unless the Centre allocated funds, the States would remain helpless onlookers unable to fully implement schemes like MGNREGA.
