Sonia targets Centre over ‘drop’ in NREGS fund allocation, govt rebuts

Responding to the Congress president, Union ministers Giriraj Singh and Anurag Thakur accused her of politicising the issue.

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday expressed concern over “constant cuts” in the budgetary allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guaranteed Act (MGNREGA), saying all states showed negative balance in their accounts dues worth ₹5,000 crore were pending.

Congress Interim President and MP Sonia Gandhi speaks in Lok Sabha during the second part of Budget Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Thursday. (ANI)

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi said the scheme, which was launched by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2006, has played an important role in saving the Narendra Modi government’s face during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Still there is regular reduction in the budgetary allocation for MGNREGA. This year the budget for MGNREGA is 35% less than that of 2020,” she said. “This comes at a time when unemployment is rising continuously.”

When the scheme was launched in 2006, some people had mocked at it, she said. “But during Covid-19 and lockdown, it gave timely help to crores of poor families. It played an important role in saving the government’s face during the crisis,” the Congress MP from Rae Bareli said.

When the government makes these budget cuts, there is a delay in the payment of workers, Gandhi said, adding that last week, under the scheme, “all states reflected a negative balance in their accounts and hence dues worth ₹5,000 crore are pending”.

“Recently states were told that the annual budgets won’t be given approval unless they meet conditions related to social audit and appointment of Lokpal,” Gandhi said. “Social audit should be made effective but workers can’t be punished by stopping the money for this. This is wrong and inhuman.”

She urged the Centre to allocate funds for MGNREGA — which guarantees at least 100 days of manual work annually for at least one member of every rural household — to ensure that the workers are paid within 15 days of work and pay compensation in case of delay in the payment of wages.

Rural development minister Giriraj Singh and Information and Broadcasting (I&B) minister Anurag Thakur hit back at Gandhi, claiming her remarks were “far from truth” and accusing her of politicising the issue.

“The issue raised by the honourable member is far from the truth. The budgetary allocation for MGNREGA in 2013-14 (UPA years) was ₹33,000 crore, whereas under Prime Minister Narendra Modi it had reached ₹1.12 lakh crore. No need to show us the mirror,” Singh said.

Responding to the Congress chief, Thakur alleged that the MGNREGA scheme saw massive corruption under the UPA government, which was weeded out by the Modi government.

Under PM Modi, geo-tagging of assets created under MGNREGA was introduced and payments were directly made to workers in their Jan Dhan accounts, Thakur added.

Congress members protested the remarks made by Singh and Thakur targeting the UPA. To this Thakur said it was ironic for the Opposition to criticise when a Union minister had responded immediately to an issue raised by Gandhi.

(With agency inputs)