Job cards of over 54.8 million MGNREGA workers deleted in 2022-23: Govt

Over 54.8 million job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act were deleted in 2022-23, a 267 per cent jump from the previous fiscal, the Union Rural Development Ministry informed Lok Sabha Tuesday.

In reply to a query by JD(U) MP from Bihar Dileshwar Kamait, Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said West Bengal saw the highest number of MGNREGA job cards being deleted at 83,43,469, which is 5,203 per cent more than 2021-22 when 1,57,309 job cards were deleted.

In Bihar, job cards of 83,30,633 workers were deleted, which is 315.84 per cent more than the previous fiscal. Uttar Pradesh saw the deletion of 78,78,403 job cards, 608 per cent more than the previous fiscal, while Andhra Pradesh saw the deletion of 77,96,889 job cards, the minister said.

She added that in total 5,48,27,121 job cards were deleted in 2022-23. This is an increase of 267.18 per cent compared to 2022-21 when job cards involving 1,49,31,801 workers were deleted, Jyoti said.

The reasons for the deletion include fake, incorrect and duplicate job cards, workers not willing to work anymore, family shifting from a gram panchayat permanently and single-person job card where the person has died.

In reply to a query in the Lok Sabha last week, Jyoti said more than 7.43 lakh "fake" job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme were deleted in 2022-23, of which over 2.96 lakh were in Uttar Pradesh.