Budget 2026: Centre allocates ₹30K cr for MGNREGA to clear pending dues

New Act to be notified from April 1, giving states six months to transition and notify it individually

The Union Budget on Sunday allocated ₹30,000 crore for MGNREGA to clear pending dues under the scheme, while providing ₹95,692 crore for the newly-launched rural employment support programme that replaced it. 

“Budget provision has been provided exactly as was seen when the bill was being presented. It's a legacy of the inefficient way in which the MGNREGA was implemented by the states so there is some carry-over of ₹30,000 crore, of which we have taken the responsibility of verifying and fulfilling,” V Vualnam, expenditure secretary, told reporters. 

The new scheme, Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), is expected to be notified by the Centre from April 1, which will give states six months’ transition time within which they have individually notified the same, a senior official had recently clarified. 

Overall, the Budget for the rural sector has gone up by almost 28.4 per cent in Budget Estimate (BE) for FY27, as against the Revised Estimate (RE) of ₹212,750 crore in FY26, largely due to provisioning for both the rural employment schemes. 

However, critics said that outside the two, there are several other schemes in the rural sector which have been provided an increased budget despite their spending being severely down. For instance, Jal Jeevan Mission was once again allocated ₹67,000 crore for FY27, despite the fact that it spent just around ₹17,000 crore in FY26 against a similar allocation in BE of FY26. 

Similarly, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen was allocated ₹54,917 crore in FY27, despite spending just ₹32,500 crore in FY26, against an allocated ₹54,832 crore. Rural roads too were again allocated ₹19,000 crore in FY27,  despite spending almost 42 per cent less in FY26.