With almost 88 per cent offtake of funds made available by the end of the first half of the year, the government on Friday indicated it was in the process to secure more funds for the “additional requirements” for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). “There is no paucity of funds for MGNREGA at this juncture. However, the ministry has sought additional funds from the Ministry of Finance for meeting additional requirements,” said a press statement issued by the Ministry of Rural Development. Sources suggested that the Narendra Modi government was likely to funnel about Rs 10,000 crore into schemes under the MGNREGA. “The Finance Ministry has indicated that they will be willing to allot another Rs 10,000-12,000 crore to the scheme. We will use our internal funds to infuse another Rs 1,000-Rs 1,500 crore into the scheme,” said an official aware of the financial status of the scheme in the current fiscal. A commitment for this is likely to be secured through the supplementary demand for grants for the current fiscal. This will be over and above the budgetary allocation of Rs 48,000 crore — the highest claimed by the government in the scheme’s decade-long history. “The budget provision of Rs 38,500 crore under MGNREGA in 2016-17 has been increased to Rs 48,000 crore in 2017-18. This is the highest ever allocation for MGNREGA,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had declared while presenting the budget for the current fiscal. According to the latest financial status, the government has so far made available over Rs 46,810 crore, including states’ share of funds. The latest status suggests a utilisation of over Rs 40,725 crore (over 87 per cent). That means a little over Rs 6,000 crore is available. The ministry, on its part, has released about Rs 39,837 crore from its total allocation of Rs 48,000 crore. The central government has over Rs 8,000 crore in its kitty. A government official suggested that this Rs 8,000 crore fund lying with the Ministry from the budgetary allocation, clubbed with unused Rs 6,000 crore already made available to the states, provides it enough for the functioning of the scheme till the additional funds are provided by the government.
