'Release Rs 5,000 cr for MGNREGA to deal with agrarian crisis'

Ahead of the Centre's budget preparatory exercise, over 100 civil society members today appealed to Union Minister Arun Jaitley to "immediately" release additional Rs 5,000 crore for MGNREGA in view of agrarian "crisis" in the country.
"Given the immediate crisis and requirement of the remaining three months of the FY 2015-16, we request the additional Rs 5,000 crore to be made available to the Union Rural Development Ministry immediately," signatories of the letter urged, according to a statement issued by the members.
In an open letter handed over to Finance Minister Jaitley during pre-budget consultations on social sector, the members also demanded that subsequent budget estimations and allocations for MGNREGA "must be" brought in line with inflation. They also demanded that allocations to MGNREGA should be operated through a "demand pull" system, as required by the law.

The letter was signed by prominent personalities like noted playwright Girish Karnad, chairman of Kasturi & Sons Limited and publisher of English daily 'The Hindu' N Ram, economist Jayati Ghosh, RTI activist Shailesh Gandhi, historian Romila Thapar, veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, social activist Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey among others.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) aims at ensuring 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
Speaking about the letter, Roy said, "Given the overwhelming concern and an across the board acknowledgement that rural distress is at an all time-high, it is imperative MGNREGA which could alleviate and mitigate this distress be given budgetary support it is entitled to and as mandated under the law."

She stated that the drought situation this year has again revealed to the government the "usefulness" of the programme "as is clearly evident" from the notification issued by Ministry of Rural Development sanctioning additional employment days to 150 in six affected states.

Ghosh observed budgetary allocation for the programme has seen a "drastic" decline in real terms and as share of GDP.
In order to maintain the real level of spending of five years ago this year's outlay on the programme has to be doubled at the very least, she said.
The signatories emphasised this "pattern of fund shortage" is undermining the credibility of legal framework.

They claimed it has passed on a "chilling" message down the administration that the demand-based framework of the programme is not backed by Government of the day.
"Another fund crisis at this point would not only multiply rural distress but also deal another crippling blow to the law and the programme," they added.
The members also referred to Union Rural Development Minister Birender Singh's recent letter to Jaitley, in which the former has requested releasing the additional Rs 5000-crore fund as was promised during last budget session, to push for their demand.