Rs6,7861.67 croreThe amount lying unspent with various agencies and state governments for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment scheme.
Even as the UPA government’s proposed game changer, law on food security is awaiting parliamentary approval, its earlier flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) that fetched it votes in 2009 is crumbling, with officials and states losing interest in its implementation.
Not only has the number of households who have completed 100 days of employment in a year decreasing since 2006-07, but the volume of unspent funds has also increased in geometric proportions.
A parliamentary panel, that probed the functioning of the MGNREGA found that number of households completing 100 days of employment drastically decreased from 21,61286 in 2006-7 to 9,70930 in 2012-13. It was more dismal in 2011-12, when just 4,05442 households could complete full 100 days.
Even when the central government offered to enhance wage employment from 100 days to 150 days, only Maharashtra and West Bengal submitted the proposals. During his presentation before the panel, secretary of the department of rural development blamed panchayats for not carrying out works and thus not spending money.
Further, Rs67861.67 crore are lying unspent with various agencies and state governments. The share of unspent amount has also increased from 26.92% in 2007-07 to 32.82% in 2012-13. Even though Rs 2,07,679.87 crore were available for MGNREGA works from 2005-07, implementing agencies utilised Rs1,95,321.03 crore only. The major culprits are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Admitting that very few states were paying expeditiously within 15 days to workers, the states have also failed to provide any unemployment allowance for past two financial years.
The panel also pulled up the government saying its claim of providing employment to 29.94 crore households out of 30.34 households who demanded employment is hollow in absence of any authentic data. The decreasing trend of employment generation has now gone to just 36 days in 2012-13 from 54 in 2009-10.
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