NREGA needs Rs 8,000 crore more, but monsoon session delay creates roadblock

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New Delhi, Aug 22: The government allocation towards the mega National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) may rise to more than Rs 24,000 crore by the end of current fiscal. This is more than 44% rise over the allocation of Rs 16,000 crore made under Budget 2008-09.

The allocation for NREGA has been hiked to Rs 12,000 crore during 2007-08 and to Rs 16,000 crore during the current fiscal as the flagship scheme was extended to all the 596 districts from 330 districts earlier.

However, the delay in convening the monsoon season of Parliament may put hurdle in the implementation of NREGA, as supplementary demand has to be moved in the Parliament for the increased budgetary allocation, rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said this on Friday.

“We are comfortably meeting the demands from the states for NREGA implementation till now. But if the Parliament is not convened before October, we may face crunch,” Singh told FE. Period from October to February is considered as the peak season under NREGA, when more people demand work due to harvesting time. According the Singh, more than five crore families would get employment by the end of the current fiscal. Till now, close to 17 lakhs works mostly relating to water conservation have been taken up under NREGA. While 5 lakhs works have been completed, there are still about 12 lakhs still to be completed.

In the current fiscal, 2.52 crore families have been provided employment under NREGA. 90% of the allocation under NREGA is from the centre while the rest is put in by the state governments.

The scheme, which guarantees 100 days of manual work in a year to each family, was initially launched across 200 backward districts in February 2006. During 2007-8, the scheme was extended to 130 more districts. However despite opposition from Planning Commission, the government decided to extend it to rest of the country.

Besides, providing employment, the scheme has managed to include large number of rural people under the formal banking system. After reports of irregularities and delay in the wage payment under NREGA, the government made it compulsory that all the wage payment will be made through savings accounts held with banks and post offices.