Rs 3,358.14 cr wages under MGNREGS pending till Jan 27: MoS rural development

A total of Rs 3,358.14 crore wages under the employment guarantee scheme Mahatma Gandhi NREGS are pending till January 27, with the maximum pendency in West Bengal followed by Uttar Pradesh.

New Delhi: A total of Rs 3,358.14 crore wages under the employment guarantee scheme Mahatma Gandhi NREGS are pending till January 27, with the maximum pendency in West Bengal followed by Uttar Pradesh, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. In a written reply, Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti shared the details of state-wise pending liabilities for wage component under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

According to the details, West Bengal has the maximum pending wages of Rs 752 crore in the current financial year 2021-22, followed by Uttar Pradesh at Rs 597.07 crore and Rajasthan at Rs 555.08 crore. In another reply, Minister of State for Rural Development Faggan Singh Kulaste said, in the current financial year, an amount of Rs 81,406.73 crore has been released to states/UTs for the implementation of the MNREGS, as on February 3.

In the Financial Year 2021-22, the budget provision at Budget Estimate (BE) stage was Rs 73,000 crore. The ministry has requested for additional budget allocation which has been enhanced to Rs 98,000 crore at the Revised Estimate (RE) stage as per the requirement of funds, Kulaste said. MGNREGS is a demand driven Scheme. As per the Scheme, a rural household is eligible for at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment against their demand for wage employment. In the current FY 2021-22 against the total demand for wage employment, a total of 99.34 per cent has been offered wage employment, he said.

PTI