Bihar and Karnataka are the top two States among other provinces that have cumulatively not spent ₹1,000 crore of allocated funds under MNREGA in the current fiscal (as of October 23, 2024), according to the parliamentary standing committee report, placed on Thursday.

The report shows that the unspent amount in the current fiscal was ₹1,109.91 crore in Bihar, ₹1,098.9 crore in Karnataka, ₹497.39 crore in Assam and ₹464.15 crore in Kerala.

In the first report on Demand for Grants of the Ministry of Rural Development, the parliamentary panel headed by Lok Sabha MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka has also criticised the Ministry for its “stereotype response” with regard to the recommendation on wage revision.

It said: “An oft-repeated concern of the Committee pertaining with MGNREGA has been that of increase in wage rate. Despite several recommendations in this regard, there has been no noticeable change in the stance of the ministry. While it has always been sending stereotype response regarding revision of wages every financial year, but realistically, the quantum of revision, in all earnest, merits a relook.”

The committee has said that allowing unspent funds allocated for various schemes despite the invariable constraints faced by the ministry is not going to help in the development of rural poor people as envisaged by the Government.

“The Committee therefore strongly recommend the Department of Rural Development to take appropriate and effective steps so that unspent balances do not keep piling up regularly for various schemes and it should gear up its mechanism for proper and effective implementation of all the development schemes/programmes for the welfare of poor and marginalized section of the rural populace across the country.”

On the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the panel appreciated that there is an increase of 43.33 per cent (to ₹ 86,000 crore) in budgetary allocation for the scheme during 2024-25.

The ministry also told the panel that MGNREGS is a demand-driven program and there was an upward revision in the agreed Labour Budget in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana and Puducherry, as a result of which the allocation has been increased in current fiscal.

But the panel pointed out that the unspent balance under the MGNREGA Scheme was ₹6,545.87 crore in 2021-22, ₹2,311.31 crore in 2022-23 and ₹1,110.02 crore in 2023-24.

However, the Ministry informed the panel that funds released towards the material and admin component of the programme particularly in the terminal month of the financial year become unspent balance in some States, due to delayed availability of funds to the State through RBI. Also, some technical issues come up during the fund transfer order generation at the field or administrative issues at the field, the ministry said adding that it, however, ensures the liquidation of the last release prior to the subsequent release.

According to the report the panel wanted to know from the ministry to name the non-performing States in the context of implementation of MGNREGA particularly in terms of fund releases, timely submission of muster rolls and other mandatory formalities. However, there was no mention of West Bengal in its reply as the state has been targeted by some leaders for non-performance in the implementation of MNREGA. The report also shows that the Centre is yet to release its share of ₹2,757 crore for wages and Rs 2,709 crore as material support to the state.

The ministry said: “Under the scheme, there is no scope of targeting the demand from the beneficiaries. So only an anticipation for the demand of wage employment is made by the state/UT keeping in view the pattern of demand in the last 2-3 years. If there is more demand than the anticipated labour budget, in such cases revision of the agreed labour Budget is done…As there is no targeted allocation of Labour Budget as well as funds, so previous years’ performance of the scheme in a state has no relation with any financial outlays for current FY or next FY.”