MNREGA is the central scheme of employment guarantee.
Indian Union Budget 2021-22: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget for the financial year 2021-22 next year on 1 February 2021. In this budget, along with other allocations, most of the people will also keep an eye on how much allocation will be given to MNREGA, the central government scheme in rural areas. The biggest reason for this is that people will get employment in rural areas and if the expenditure in the villages increases, then the rural economy will accelerate. In February this year, there was a decline in MNREGA allocation in the budget for the financial year 2020-21. This time, Rs 61 thousand crore was allocated in the budget, while the revised budget allocation for the financial year 2019-20 was Rs 71 thousand crore. However, the additional budget was allocated in May due to the Corona epidemic.
Increasing budget allocation for last six years
- If we look at the trend of budget allocation for MNREGA, budget allocation has been increasing for the last six years. The budget allocation for this financial year 2020-21 was higher than the allocation for the previous financial year but it was less as compared to the revised allocation of the previous financial year.
- In the last financial year 2019-20, 60 thousand crores was allocated for MNREGA at the time of budget, but it was later revised to 71 thousand crores. In comparison, a budget of 61 thousand crores was allocated this time. However, due to Corona Mahama, the allocation of 40 thousand crore was increased in May.
- Speaking of year-wise budget allocation, 34699 crore was allocated in the financial year 2015-16, 38500 crore in 2016-17, 48 thousand crore in 2017-18 and 55 thousand crore in 2018-19 was allocated for MNREGA. The budget for MNREGA has been increased during the financial year, if needed.
Circumstances have changed due to corona epidemic
Normally additional funds are required for MNREGA even after allocation during the budget. In such a situation, the need fund is allocated during the financial year. This year many people returned to the village due to the Corona epidemic. In May, the Finance Minister allocated an additional budget of 40 thousand crores to provide employment to these migrant laborers on their return to the village. The threat of Corona epidemic is still not averted. In such a situation, it is being hoped that the budget allocation of MNREGA will increase in the next budget.
Sunil Srivastava, secretary of Shivkumar Shukla, Principal of Parigwan village in Siddharthnagar district, said that due to Corona, there has been a lot of change in the work under MNREGA. Now the same works are being done so that maintenance of social distancing can be done like cleaning the drain etc. He said that due to Corona epidemic many workers had returned home, this time the number of people seeking work increased, although now up to 80 percent people have returned to the city. In spite of this, work has to be done for the remaining people.
Under the MGNREGA, concrete work includes the use of an interlocking, paving and draining, and cleaning of the groove in the raw work. This time there was more focus on cleaning the drain because it was easier to maintain social distancing.
Andhra Pradesh gets the most funds in 2018-19
On the Ministry of Rural Department, there are funds released data related to MNREGA in which data from 2014-15 to 2018-19 can be seen which state has the highest expenditure on MGNREGA related items. According to this, the maximum funds for MNREGA were released to Andhra Pradesh in the financial year 2018-19.
After Rajasthan, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh got the most. In 2018-19, Rs 5875 crore was released for Andhra Pradesh, while Rs 5741 crore was released for West Bengal and Rs 3903 crore for Uttar Pradesh. In its last financial year 2017-18, the most funds were released to West Bengal and after that the most funds were released to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. 5960 crore was released to West Bengal, 5856 crore to Tamil Nadu and 5139 crore to Andhra Pradesh.
Central scheme of MNREGA employment guarantee
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is an employment guarantee scheme. Under this scheme, every financial year, a minimum of 100 days of employment is guaranteed to adult people living in rural areas. Unskilled work is done under this, which does not require any skill or training.
