November 09, 2014
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Changes in MGNREGA Will Affect the Poor: Manik Sarkar

TRIPURA Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has written a letter to the prime minister, on November 3, apprising him of the problems faced by the state and its people with regards to MGNREGA allocations. Sarkar said despite being the best performing state in carrying out MGNREGA projects, the central government has reduced allocation for Tripura, and requested the prime minister to look into the problems of the state sympathetically and advise the concerned ministry to release funds immediately. Referring to the changes being carried out in the Act, Sarkar said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was enacted to provide social protection and prevent exploitation of poor and vulnerable sections of the society by providing employment opportunities in their vicinity, but the Centre’s recent move to amend provisions of the Act will affect the poor and vulnerable sections of the society. “…the Government of India is thinking to change the basic structures of this landmark legislation and reduce its coverage to only some selected areas of the country. It is also being considered to increase the material-labour ratio which will, without commensurate increase in fund, adversely affect the number of wage employment. These steps are bound to affect the poor and vulnerable families in the rural areas, especially those belonging to the SC, ST, OBC and religious minorities, and defeat the very purpose of providing protection against exploitation to these families,” he wrote. “I would strongly urge you to kindly look into the interest of these most vulnerable sections of the society and take steps so that they are benefited instead of losing their right to survival.” The Act gives the poor and needy persons the right to demand employment from the state and the state government has been made duty bound to provide employment within 15 days of such demand being raised by citizens in rural areas. This responsibility of the government is not limited by budgetary or other constraints and the Government of India is committed to provide necessary fund to the state government for this purpose. “It is, however, seen that flow of fund from the ministry of rural development has become allocation based and has been subjected to several constraints and procedural requirements which has not been conceived in the Act. Every year, the ministry of rural development approves the labour budget of the state for a year in advance. However, fund released during the year is much less than the budget so approved by the ministry, thus causing disruption in demand management and creation of durable and productive assets in the rural areas,” Sarkar said. It is a matter of utter disappointment that the ministry of rural development has severely curtailed the availability of funds for Tripura for 20l4-15. Tripura has been the best performing state continuously in the last three years and has been one of the top performers since inception of MGNREGA. Poor people of Tripura, in particular, SC, ST, OBC, minorities and BPL families, have been getting the benefit of the assured employment for last several years. Apart from providing employment opportunities, a large number of durable and productive assets have also been created in the rural areas which are contributing to the uplift of the rural economy of Tripura. Impact of this scheme is visible in the rural areas of Tripura to any person coming from outside and implementation of this programme in the state has been lauded by the ministry of rural development on several occasions in the past including awarding of precious prizes at the national level. “The decision to inflict such severe reduction has been taken without any consultation with the state government,” the chief minister wrote to the prime minister. “Labour budget approved by the ministry of rural development for Tripura for 20l4-15 was Rs 1,406.96 crore and we had planned accordingly. Against this, it has been communicated recently that only Rs 652.01 crore would be given to Tripura. This is just 46 per cent of the demand of the people of Tripura that the ministry of rural development had approved earlier. This is also much less than the amount that Tripura had received in 20l3-14, which was Rs 943.66 crore. You would kindly appreciate that this drastic cut in allocation has severely disrupted the plan of action which has been prepared by gram panchayats, block panchayats and district panchayats and approved by the Government of India, thus generating doubts in the mind of the people about the sincerity of the Government of India to take care of genuine problems being faced by the poor people.” Not only this, as per scheme of the ministry of rural development fund allocated to the state is to be released in two instalments only, but in case of Tripura only Rs 373 crore has been released till date in three instalments though the Government of Tripura has fulfilled all requirements for full release of allocated amount i.e. Rs 652.01 crore. Less release of money is causing further distress in the rural areas which is going to intensify in the coming months as agriculture season is over and requirement for wage employment through MGNREGA is going to increase in the coming months. “Allocation to Tripura has been reduced though the budget of ministry of rural development for MGNREGA for 20I4-15 is almost same as it was in 2013-14. As per data made available on the website of the ministry, it is seen that allocation of some states like, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu has increased significantly whereas allocation for the best performing and needy state like Tripura has been reduced,” Sarkar wrote, and urged the prime minister to look into the problems of Tripura sympathetically.