Friday’s Budget may have provided a bonus for landholding farmers, but the jobs guarantee scheme, which is a lifeline for landless labourers and other rural workers, faces a continued funds crunch.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme was allocated only ₹60,000 crore for the next financial year, slightly lower than its revised estimate of ₹61,084 crore for the current year.
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said, “Additional amount would be provided if required.”
The last Budget had announced an original allocation of ₹55,000 crore for the scheme for 2018-19.
However, by the end of the 2018, the scheme had already exhausted 99% of its funding and had a negative net balance of ₹4,413 crore according to its financial statement on February 1.
Early in January, the Centre had announced an additional allocation of ₹6,084 crore for MGNREGA.
Recognising that this amount was unlikely to suffice for the remainder of the year, the Rural Development Ministry had requested another supplementary allocation of ₹5,000 crore. Instead of increasing this year’s allocation, however, this Budget has actually reduced next year’s allocation for the scheme.
Activists have warned that the funding crunch is resulting in difficulties in meeting the demand for work, as well as delayed payment of wages to workers.
