The Union government has made a significant reduction in the labour budget allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Kerala compared to the previous year.
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The State has been allocated 6.5 crore man-days of work this year, while the achievement of the previous year was 10.59 crore man-days of work.
The MGNREGS mission officials here said the reduction in the State's share was reflective of the overall cut in labour budget allocations due to the less-than-expected allocation for the scheme in the Union Budget this year.
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An amount of ₹73,000 crore has been allocated in the Budget this year, while the revised spending last year stood at ₹98,000 crore. The man-days of work allocated under the labour budget nationwide has been coming down progressively over the past four years, with the current year's allocation put at 227.6 crore man-days of work.
"Last year, the initial allocation for the State was seven crore man-days. In the end, we achieved 10.59 crore man-days. Reimbursements in wage payments are usually provided later, but now the material cost payments have been pending for so many months," said an official.
The Union government has not been paying the material costs incurred under the MGNREGS works in Kerala since last August, with the pending amount now going up to ₹700 crore. Many who have built cattle sheds and such constructions under the scheme have not been paid since last year due to this.
The mandatory implementation of a national mobile monitoring system for the scheme since last month has further complicated matters.
Complaints of wage payments getting held up have come from across the State. According to officials, wage payments in most States have been affected by these changes, which were implemented with an view to bringing in more transparency to the whole system.