Rural development ministry wants more funds for job scheme

This, despite the Revised Estimates for 2016-17 exceeding Budget Estimates by Rs 9,000 cr

The Rural Development Ministry might seek a third batch of supplementary demands for 2016-17 to clear pending wage dues under the flagship MGNREGA estimated to be over Rs 3,800 crore as on February 6. This is despite the Revised Estimates (RE) for 2016-17 exceeding the Budget Estimates by Rs 9,000 crore.

In fact, the dues could go well over Rs 6,900 crore as on February 6, if pending material and administrative expenditure are added on to them, as per the MGNREGA website.

Officials said if approved, the total allocation for the programme in 2016-17 financial year could exceed RE of Rs 47,500 crore and take it well over Rs 50,000 crore, the highest ever allocation under the programme.

The BE for 2016-17 stood at Rs 38,500 crore.

That apart, the government could also borrow around Rs 10,000 crore from Nabard in the coming financial year to expedite completion of its rural housing scheme over and above the Budget Allocation of Rs 23,000 crore in 2017-18.

The 2017-18 Budget Allocation for rural housing was almost 44 per cent more than the revised estimate.

Under the rural housing scheme, the Centre plans to build over 13 million houses in rural areas by 2019, of which 3.3 million pertain to uncompleted dwellings from a previous scheme.

However, if the supplementary doesn't come then there is a possibility that in 2017-18 too, a part of the budget allocation could be spend on clearing pending dues, a situation similar to the current financial year, when of the allocated Rs 47,500 crore, over Rs 12,000 crore related to expenditure incurred in the previous financial year.

The dues, when clubbed with material and administrative expenses to run the programme, are more than Rs 6,900 crore as on February 6 as per the MGNREGA website.

The Finance Ministry has allocated a sum of Rs 48,000 crore for programme in 2017-18 Budget Estimate announced by the Finance Minister in Parliament last week.

The official said that even without the extra support, the Centre will ensure funds allocated for the programme in 2017-18 would be effectively utilised to create durable assets such as farm ponds and vermi-compost pits in rural areas.

Till date, the government had sought Parliamentary nod for two batches of supplementary demand for grants, the last one in December 2016 when it sought permission to incur an additional expenditure of Rs 59,978.29 crore in 2016-17.

Meanwhile, officials said the much-talked about "Mission Antodaya" programme, also announced in Budget 2017-18 would be funded through a combination of 15-20 per cent annual hike in annual budgetary allocation for rural development, pooling resources from other related programme such as National Health Mission and Prime Minister's Irrigation Scheme.

Transfers made through the 14th finance commission to states and indigenous resource generation by Gram Panchayats themselves by levying user charges and property taxes will also be utilised to fund the Mission.

The Mission that aims at bringing 1 crore households and 50,000 Gram Panchayats out of poverty will function under the overall ambit of Deendayal Upadhyaya-National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) whose budget is also expected to raised by an additional Rs 4,000 crore per year to reach the objective in the coming years.

For 2017-18, the NRLM has got a Budgetary allocation of over Rs 4,900 crore over and above the revised estimate of Rs 3,334 crore of 2016-17.

The Mission would extensively use the Socio-Economic Caste Census- 2011 to monitor the progress of various central programmes identified through well-defined 36 parameters.

These include parameters like growth in percentage of irrigated land, growth in percentage of children fully immunised, rise in percentage of old, widows and disabled under social protection, percentage of households who have leveraged over Rs 20,000 crore as bank credit.

"The notion of a poverty free Gram Panchayat is based on a multi-dimensionality understanding of poverty and will funded through existing programme resources and also additional allocations," an official explained.
 

TAKE FOR ‘GRANTED’?
 

• Centre might seek parliamentary approval for a third batch of supplementary demands for grants

• The extra funds could be used to clear pending wages and material dues under MGNREGS

• In 2016-17, of the extra allocation of Rs 47,500 crore, over Rs 12,000 crore was spent on clearing pending dues pertaining to the previous year

• The Centre could also seek Nabard’s help to get some extra funds for rural housing programme

• The 2017-18 Budget allocation for rural housing programme, called the Pradhan 

• Mantri Awas Yojana (Grameen) was raised by over 44%, compared to the Revised Estimates of 2016-17