Fiscal stimulus 2.0: Why cash support to migrant workers was aborted

The jump of Rs 40,000 crore in allotment to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is more or less what the government had planned at one stage to provide migrant workers as immediate relief, but gave up the idea because of operational difficulties. 

The plan for cash relief changed as the ground realities altered rapidly in the past two months. After the end of the first lockdown on April 14, it had become clear to the Centre the migrant workers, cooped up without job, would need a special support programme. 

The sum was debated and it became