Rural employment: Rs 3,358.14 crore wages under MGNREGS pending until Jan 27: MoS Rural Development

A total of Rs 3,358.14 crore in wages under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS job guarantee scheme are on hold until January 27, with the peak hold in West Bengal followed by Uttar Pradesh, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. In a written response, the Minister of State for Rural Development, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, shared details of the state’s pending obligations for the wage component under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( MGNREGS).

As per the details, West Bengal has the maximum pending salary of Rs 752 crore for the current financial year 2021-22, followed by Uttar Pradesh at Rs 597.07 crore and Rajasthan at Rs 555.08 crore.

In another response, Minister of State for Rural Development, Faggan Singh Kulaste said that in the current financial year, an amount of Rs 81,406.73 crore has been released to the States/UT for the implementation implementation of the MNREGS, such as February 3.

In the financial year 2021-22, the budget provision at the budget estimate (BE) stage was Rs 73,000 crore. The ministry requested an additional budget allocation which was increased to Rs 98,000 crore at the Revised Estimate (RE) stage in line with the fund requirement, Kulaste said.

MGNREGS is a demand driven program. Under the program, a rural household is entitled to at least 100 days of wage employment guaranteed against its application for wage employment.

In the current fiscal year 2021-22 from the total demand for salaried jobs, a total of 99.34% were offered salaried jobs, he said.