A parliamentary standing committee has strongly condemned the government’s response to its suggestions for major programs, especially the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The committee said that the answers were “stereotypical, routine, and generic,” and they were quite unhappy that the government ignored their suggestions, especially on wages and material costs that were still due.
The Committee’s Main Concerns
The panel pointed out that the plan has ongoing financial problems and said that the government’s response “lacks any concrete measure” and is “silent especially on the existing pendencies under material components.” The committee thought it was “unfathomable” that the government didn’t answer its precise questions and was “evasive on an important matter.”
The committee repeated its worries about a few important issues:
The accumulation of unused money in several plans.
The lack of progress in allocating work days and funds under MGNREGS.
Workers don’t get paid enough.
The required payment method based on Aadhaar.
The panel repeated its earlier advice, telling the government to look at these issues again with the seriousness they deserve.
Unpaid bills and not enough money
The panel says that a large part of the MGNREGS funding is going to pay off debts from prior years. This will cost 27.26% of the scheme’s budget, which will lower the operational budget from ₹86,000 crore to ₹62,553.73 crore.
The committee’s statistics showed that recipients were owed ₹12,219.18 crore in wages and that the material part of the plan was still owed ₹11,227.09 crore. The panel “strongly reiterates the recommendation for the eradication of pending liabilities under MGNREGA through robust measures of financial prudence at the earliest.”
The panel also said that the National Social Assistance Programme’s funding has stayed the same for the past three financial years, in addition to MGNREGS. It suggested that the program’s “upward revision of fund allocation” be made to help beneficiaries who are having trouble getting enough help and whose projects are behind schedule.