Activists accuse govt of using budget cuts to 'dilute' MNREGA

Activists today accused the government of using budget cuts to "rapidly dilute and undermine" the rural job guarantee scheme MNREGA.
On the occasion of 10th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Jayati Ghosh of People's Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) alleged that an implicit budget cap was being put on the scheme and that there had been delay in release of funds.
"The attack on MNREGA began before this government. Since the new NDA government has come, it has become more drastic and explicit. Although they are saying no budgetary cuts, actually things are different. There is a real attempt to shrink it further," Ghosh told reporters here.

Noting that MNREGA was brought due to the pressure of social movements and progressive parties, Ghosh said that to sustain the programme, there was a need to bring back that pressure.
"The government is purposely trying to kill it. The impact is already been felt in real wages. The worst effect is felt by the women workers and poor in the rural India. It has to resisted and the real intent of the government has to be brought out," she said.
Ghosh alleged that MNREGA funding has not been keeping to its demand-based requirements and has fallen steadily from 0.8 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009-10 to roughly one-fourth of that amount.

Nikhil Dey of 'Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan' said that with the government all set to present the 2015 Union Budget, this trend of reducing budgetary support for programmes for the poor will have extremely "life debilitating and life threatening effect" on them.

"The destruction of the social sector is shifting many of them into situations of distress and desperation. Today, with increasing rural distress, the government is clearly only pandering to the requirements of the corporate sector.
"The allocations for MGNREGA in the Union Budget will be a litmus test for whether the government has any sense of responsibility to India's poorest people and whether it is even willing to meet its legal responsibilities and adequately fund MGNREGA in keeping with the spirit of the Act," he said.

Noted lawyer Indira Jaising emphasised that the MGNREGA is a law passed by the Parliament and a government that is unable to dilute the law in the Parliament cannot use administrative "subterfuge" and fund squeezes to undermine entitlements provided by the law.
The remarks came despite Centre today asserting that it was committed to strengthening MNREGA and is taking all steps to ensure uninterrupted flow of funds for the implementation of the improvised version of the rural job scheme.