New Delhi: At the Zero Hour in Parliament, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today expressed concerns over the budgetary cut for the rural employment scheme MGNREGA. She said that several states have negative balance in their accounts to the tune of ₹ 5,000 crore. This has led to delay in the payments of workers.
Sonia Gandhi urged the government to make adequate allocations to MGNREGA, a scheme that had helped the government during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ensure payments within 15 days.
Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh and I&B Minister Anurag Thakur hits back at the opposition leader, by accusing her for politicalizing the issue. He alleged that her remarks were ‘far from truth.”
“The issue raised by the honorable 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.
Sonia said, “MGNREGA, which was mocked by some persons, had provided timely help to crores of affected poor families during the pandemic and played a positive role in helping the government.”
Further speaking of Budget she said that still there is regular reduction in the budgetary allocation for MGNREGA. This year the budget for MGNREGA is 35 per cent less than that of 2020. This comes at a time when unemployment is rising continuously.
She said that because of budgetary cuts, legal guarantee of payment and employment was weakening. She made a note of Supreme Court linking the delay in MGNREGA payments with forced labour.
She said, “The states were told that their annual labour budget will not be approved unless they meet conditions related to social audit and appointment of Lokpal.”
“Social audit should be made effective but workers can’t be punished by stopping the money for this,” she said.
She made a request to the Central Government for allocating adequate funds for MGNREGA, and assurance of payment of workers within 15 days of work, and pay compensation in case of delay in payment of wages.
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