New Delhi: The ministry of rural development took into account deprivation levels in states for the first time in the year 2016-17 while approving labour budgets under the flagship rural employment guarantee scheme, the government said on Wednesday, adding that the total expenditure on the programme was to the tune of Rs58,056 crore.
Another first for the programme that completed a decade of its existence last year was the emphasis it gave to water conservation, the government said in an overview of its performance in the last financial year.
In 2017-18, the programme which was launched in 2006, will focus on a reduction in the delay in payment of wages, a government statement said.
“With over 82% active workers (9.1 crore) with Aadhaar seeding...4.6 crore workers on Aadhaar based Payment Bridge, electronic payment of 96% wages through Bank/Post Office accounts,more than 89 lakh assets geo tagged so far, 93 lakh jobcards deleted so far through proper verification, large scale drought proofing water conservation works in rainfall deficient regions, MGNREGS (the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) established itself as a well governed programme creating durable assets for livelihood security in poor regions, while providing employment on demand,” the government said.
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“For the first time, deprivation levels of States were taken into account while approving Labour Budget. The April to July period in the financial year 2016-17 witnessed an unprecedented demand for work on account of the continued drought. Thereafter, on account of a good monsoon in over 75% districts, the demand remained concentrated in drought affected regions like Karnataka,” it said.
The programme notched up 230 crore person days which is higher than the revised labour budget. The total provisional expenditure of Rs58,056 crore which includes the central as well as the state budgets.
This is “the highest ever” spend in MGNREGS in any year, the statement said.
Water conservation was one of the main activities undertaken by the programme with states undertaking “specific unique water conservation initiatives using MGNREGS resources.” Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra were the main states where this was done which resulted in nearly 90 lakh hectares of irrigation potential being created through MGNREGS, the statement said. There was also an emphasis on the completion of projects undertaken by village councils, the statement said referring to one of the perennial and persistent complaints against the programme that it produced unsustainable and incomplete assets.
“More than 56 lakh works have been completed during the year which is the highest since the inception of the programme,” the statement added. Since its launch, the MGNREGS has been a key source of livelihood for millions of rural households. It guarantees up to 100 days of unskilled work in a year to one member of every rural household and was credited with raising rural household incomes. One of the criticisms of the scheme, which has been largely lauded for helping reduce poverty and providing jobs to unskilled labour, is that it has created assets like village ponds that have no durability.
