Accused of making a 'U-turn' on its stand on MGNREGA, the Centre today hit back at Congress, raising questions on implementation of the flagship rural job scheme during the UPA rule, and dismissed as "misinformation" the charge that it wanted to "close down" the programme.
Announcing that 186 crore person days' work was created under MGNREGA in the just concluded financial year, the government said there would be no dearth of funds for the scheme.
"Beneficiaries of MGNREGA felt cheated due to the manner in which the UPA implemented the scheme. We have tried to alleviate that. People are now coming forward for MGNREGA," Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said.
Referring to enhanced allocation of funds for the scheme under the NDA government, Singh, who joined BJP in August last year, said since he had been in Congress, he can see the difference between implementation of the scheme under the previous and the present governments.
"At that time when the allocation was Rs 40,000 crore, the expenditure was around Rs 25,000 crore. This is the first year that the entire allocated sum has been spent. This year work worth more than Rs 43,000 crore has been done under MGNEGA. We have removed many lacunaues.
"It was this government that thought of spending 60 per cent on agriculture. We have actually succeeded in spending over 64 per cent of MGNREGA fund on it. MGNREGA is not limited to 100-day job creation but asset creation. Maintaining the 60:40 ratio, Rs 16,000 crore has been spent through convergence in MGNREGA and created quality assets. We devised new ways to implement MGNREGA in a proper manner," Singh said.
He was speaking to the media a day after the Union budget allocated Rs 38,500 crore for MGNREGA in 2016-17, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying if the total amount was spent, it will be the highest budget spending on MGNREGA.
"As far as the budget is concerned, it is the highest. As far expenditure is concerned, it is the highest," Singh asserted.
Regarding the demand to link MGNREGA wages to market rate and the constitution of Narendra Dev Committee on the wage issue, the minister said the committee has given its report, which has already been accepted by the ministry and it has written to the Finance Ministry.
"The report recommends that MGNREGA wage should be at par with the existing agricultural wage in the state. This will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 2,000 crore for which I have made a demand from the Finance Ministry," Singh said.
Sources in the ministry said the committee wants the MGNREGA wage to be linked to rural Consumer Price Index. If it is accepted, the state wages and MGNREGA wages will be the same, the sources said.
Singh said this government has given an impetus to the
rural job scheme and has increased the allocation by over Rs 3,800 crore in 2016-17. There would be no dearth of fund for the scheme as it is demand-driven, he said.
The minister said steps are being taken to address the problems of leakage and delay in payment by introducing the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) method and simplification of procedure.
Since January 1 this year, all payments under MGNREGA in Kerala being made through DBT and, by the end of this year, 10 more states will implement the DBT scheme, he said.
Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation Ram Kripal Yadav said, "It was never said (by the government) that the scheme will be closed down. This was a misinformation. Such games of lies are played. Now they must be regretting as the government has increased funding for MGNREGA."
On other schemes of his ministry, Singh said road construction has got a momentum during the NDA dispensation.
Earlier, 16.7 kilometres of road a day was being laid under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana which has gone up to 100 kms a day in the last two years.
Lauding the budget for its "pro-farmer and pro-village" thrust, he said it will transform the rural India through economic empowerment of the poor. He said it was for the first time that more than one lakh crore rupees has been earmarked for development of rural areas.
On the issue of rural housing, the minister said 2.95 crore houses will be built under the 'Housing for All' scheme and the government has proposed to double the allocation for each unit from the existing Rs 70,000 for plain areas and Rs 75,000 in hilly and difficult areas.
In this year's budget Rs 15,000 crore was allocated for Indira Aawas Yojana, which is the highest ever for the scheme. Singh said the BPL-APL differentiation will also be done away with in the new housing scheme and money will be given to beneficiaries based on latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.
