English
New Delhi, Mar 17: There is a logjam of over Rs 17,000 crore in payment of salaries for unskilled labour under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) since 2014, MoS (Rural Development), as reported by Ram Kripal Yadav in response to a question by two MPs in Lok Sabha Thursday, March 16.
According to Yadav who is a member of the 16th Lok Sabhafrom the Pataliputra parliamentary constituenc, the year-wise breakup is Rs 4,200 crore for 2014-15, Rs 3,900 crore for 2015-16 and Rs 8,000 crore for 2016- 17, until March 11. He also said that among the states, West Bengal has the largest unpaid dues this financial year at Rs 2,435 crore.
Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Assam account for more than Rs 500 crore each in the financial year 2016-17. “The fund release to states/UTs is a continuous process and central government is committed to making funds available keeping in view the demand for work,” Ram Kripal Yadav said, reported Indian Express.
The Supreme Court had earlier criticised the government for not releasing enough funds for MNREGA, in 2016. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech for the year 2017-18 had announced funds of Rs 48,000 crore. This year, in some quarters, the fund has been described as a minor increase from the revised funds for MNREGA in the previous year which was Rs 47,499 crore. MNREGA’s actual spend in 2015-16 was Rs 37,340.71 crore.
On Thursday, MoS Ram Kripal Yadav also informed Lok Sabha of various steps taken by the government to reduce delays in the payment of MNREGA wages.
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