In different media reports, a concern has been raised that the Union Budget has allocated Rs 60,000 crore for the MGNREGA scheme for 2023-24, which is 18% lower than the Rs 73,000 crore budget estimates of 2022-23. This may affect the rural job employment scheme Mahatma Gandhi NREGA to achieve its objective of providing wage employment against the demand from the rural households. This is far from truth.
Mahatma Gandhi NREGA is a demand driven Scheme. Any household demanding employment shall be provided at least 100 days of unskilled manual work in a financial year in accordance with the Scheme. During the current FY 2022-23, a total of 99.81% rural households have been offered wage employment against their demand for work. If an applicant for employment under the Scheme is not provided such employment within fifteen days of receipt, he shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance.
The person days generation during last three years and current financial year so far is as under:
| FY 2022-2023 | FY 2021-2022 | FY 2020-2021 | FY 2019-2020 | |
| Person days Generated [In Cr] |
248.08 |
363.33 | 389.09 | 265.35 |
This reflects that the generation of person days depends upon the demand for the works.
Release of funds to the States/UTs is a continuous process.
During past years, following releases have been made to the States/UTs
| S. No. | Financial Year | Budget Estimate ( in Rs. crore) |
Revised Estimate
(in Rs. crore) |
Fund released (in Rs. crore) |
| 1 | 2014-15 | 34000.00 | 33000.00 | 32977.43 |
| 2 | 2015-16 | 34699.00 | 37345.95 | 37340.72 |
| 3 | 2016-17 | 38500.00 | 48220.26 | 48219.05 |
| 4 | 2017-18 | 48000.00 | 55167.06 | 55166.06 |
| 5 | 2018-19 | 55000.00 | 61830.09 | 61829.55 |
| 6 | 2019-20 | 60000.00 | 71001.81 | 71687.71 |
| 7 | 2020-21 | 61500.00 | 111500.00 | 111170.86 |
| 8 | 2021-22 | 73000.00 | 98000.00 | 98467.85 |
In the FY 2019-20 BE was Rs.60,000 crore which got revised to Rs.71,001 crore, for the FY 2020-21 BE was 61,500 crore which increased at RE to Rs.1,11,500 crore and for the FY 2021-22 the BE of Rs.73,000 crore has revised to Rs.98,000 crore. Therefore, it can be seen that the actual releases to the States have been much higher than that provided for at the BE level. Even during the current financial year 2022-23, the BE has been Rs.73,000 crore, which has been revised to Rs.89,400 crore. From the perusal of the above, it is inferred that previous release has no bearing on the requirement for funds for next year.
Whenever, additional fund is required, Ministry of Finance is requested to provide the funds. Govt. of India is committed to release funds for wage and material payments for proper implementation of the scheme, as per the provisions of the act and guidelines applicable for Central Government as well as State Governments.