Finance secretary T.V. Somanathan and Tamil Nadu Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) S. Krishnan at the ‘Breakfast with BusinessLine’ event in Chennai.
| Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
The allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was reduced in the Budget for 2023-24 because there has been a huge increase in the allocation for two other rural development programmes, Union Finance Secretary T.V. Somanathan said during a conversation with The Hindu BusinessLine Editor, Raghuvir Srinivasan.
“The estimate is lower than last year’s budget — the reduction is because there has been a huge increase in two other rural development programmes which employ pretty much the same kind of semi-skilled or unskilled labour,” he said at the ‘Breakfast with BusinessLine’ event at ITC Grand Chola, Chennai, on Thursday.
“One is the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, in which affordable housing will be provided to the urban poor, and the other is the Jal Jeevan Mission, which is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water,” he said. “₹40,000 crore of additional funds has been given for these two schemes,” he added. Mr. Somanathan said, “We expect this to have some impact on the number of people who need to come into the safety net of the rural employment guarantee.”
He noted that if the demand turned out to be higher, the government would provide an additional amount as the year went by. “We have found credible evidence of irregularities in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in some States,” he said.
The Union Budget for 2023-24 allocated ₹60,000 crore under the MGNREGA, 18% lower than the current year’s Budget Estimates and almost 33% lower than the Revised Estimates of ₹89,000 crore.