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Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to whittle down the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the interest of vulnerable sections of the society.
In a letter written to the prime minister, Sarkar, who is one of the longest serving chief ministers of Tripura, has said any step to limit the spread of MGNREGA is bound to affect poor families in the rural areas, especially those belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes.
He is the first chief minister who has officially lodged his protest against the Centre's plan to squeeze the spread of MGNREGA and tweak some of its provisions.
Last month, a group of 28-odd eminent economists had also written to the prime minister, pleading him not to dilute or restrict the provisions of MGNREGA.
Sarkar said the flow of funds for the scheme from the Union ministry of rural development had become allocation-based and subjected to several procedural constraints, many of which were outside the Act's purview.
"The fund released by the ministry during the current financial year is much less than the budget approved by it, due to which demand management and creation of durable assets in rural areas has been disrupted," Sarkar said.
The ministry has started a process of making some changes in MGNREGA. In a recent communique, it said a thorough review of the Act was necessary to break the network of interests and stop the practice of acquiring easy money through the scheme.
The ministry also said in the past few years, the scheme had earned a bad name and there was "lack of genuinely demand-driven implementation mechanism (and) non-transparent functional structure".
Data accessed by Business Standard showed till October 20 this year, about 70 per cent of all payments, totalling Rs 8,407 crore, hadn't been paid within the statutory 15 days, the most severe delay in the history of the scheme.
Though the primary responsibility for such delays rests with the state government, the Centre's lack of interest has further complicated the matter. As of October 20, state governments owed wages for 2.9 billion work days. Beside legitimate dues, they owed Rs 117.41 crore in compensation, the data showed.
Under the law, states should provide compensation for delay of more than 15 days in payments.
Meanwhile, Manik Sarkar in his letter said for Tripura, the ministry of rural development has severely curtailed the funds for the state in 2014-15. He said for MGNREGA, the state has been one the best performing states.
"Apart from employment opportunities, a large number of durable and productive assets has been created, but a decision to inflict such severe reduction in funds has been taken without consultation of the state government," Sarkar said.
He said the labour budget approved by the ministry of rural development for Tripura in 2014-15 was estimated at Rs 1,407 crore, based on which plans were made, but it was recently communicated that only Rs 652 crore will be given for this year, which is 46 per cent less than the demand and even 31 per cent less than last year's total allocation.
Sarkar said not only has the fund allocation been curtailed, but its release is also being staggered.
"According to the data available from the website of the ministry of rural development, fund allocation for some states such as Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu has increased significantly, while that of a better performing state such as Tripura has been severely curtained," Sarkar said.
