(FE)
The Centre has released Rs 21,753 crore or 35% of the annual budget outlay under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG-NREGS) in the first 40 days of the current financial year, as it sought to use the popular scheme to alleviate the distress of migrant workers returning to their villages in large numbers. The average daily release of funds under the scheme till May 10 in the current financial year was Rs 544 crore, against Rs 196 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 170 crore in 2018-19. However, it is not immediately ascertainable if how much of the MG-NREGS funds released by the Centre has actually been distributed to the workers by the state governments concerned.
However, an average of 11.72 days of employment has only be provided to rural household under the scheme so far in the current fiscal year, against the average of 48.39 days of work in the whole of 2019-20. This indicates that the even though the release of funds have been accelerated, the lockdown situation has prevented the local authorities from creating jobs on the ground. However, the average daily wage per person under the scheme in the current fiscal has been Rs 204, compared with Rs 182 in 2019-20, indicating that wages have indeed been increased.
