Five months into the financial year 2023-24, Kerala has only 6.5% of funds allotted by the Centre for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) left, Kerala Minister for Local Self-Government M.B. Rajesh told The Hindu. This is a recurrent problem that repeats each year because of progressive budget cuts by the Union government, Mr. Rajesh said, accusing the Narendra Modi government of diluting the spirit of the programme.
He was in town to lodge a protest with Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh and seek more funds for the State. “The Centre should at least give us funds equivalent to what we spent in the previous financial year,” he said.
He pointed out that the labour budget for MGNREGS is shrinking every successive year. In 2021-22, Kerala got funds for 10.5 crore person days (person days is defined as the total number of work days by a person registered under the scheme in a financial year). In 2022-23, this was reduced to 9.61 crore person days and in the ongoing financial year, it has been further cut down to only six crore person days. “Each year, within a few months into the financial year, owing to the high demand, we spend a significant chunk of our funds and are left pleading with the Centre to meet the gap,” he added.
