Maharashtra ranks 10th in asset creation: MNREGA

While Maharashtra has registered 2.13 crore workers under MNREGA, only 24 per cent (52.5 lakh) are actively working (Representational image)

Of the 32 states and Union Territories, where Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to provide job opportunities to economically weaker sections is implemented, Maharashtra ranks tenth when it comes to asset creation under the scheme despite having a larger registration of workforce than several other states.

Data from 2017-18, till early September, showed West Bengal created maximum assets, in terms of number of job works done, with 5.2 lakh job works for land development, infrastructure for livestock, rural housing, and plantation done. States like Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh followed suit.

In 2017-18 till September 11, Maharashtra records for MNREGA show only 1.25 lakh asset creation, including 29,483 various projects done for land development, 1,401 plantation works, 91,993 projects for rural housing and 2,971 works for developing infrastructure for livestock.

While Maharashtra has registered 2.13 crore workers under MNREGA, only 24 per cent (52.5 lakh) are actively working, in contrast to West Bengal where of 2.6 crore registered workers, 50 per cent are working for MNREGA.

Odisha has almost the same number of active workers (56.4 lakh) under the scheme as Maharashtra, but has created 2.8 lakh assets, double of Maharashtra’s performance. “Maharashtra has population more than double of Odisha. So, ideally our state should produce more assets. The reason why less people work under MNREGA in Maharashtra is because the market wages are higher than what MNREGA offers,” said Ravi Duggal, researcher and activist.

Maharashtra, earlier a pioneer in MNREGA, is struggling with issues of employment creation, and timely payments to workers.

Duggal added that there is a lack of coordination between public works, agriculture and rural departments. “In Several cases, job cards are made in the name of other people,” said Duggal.

In Nandurbar, for instance, NGO Narmada Bachao Andolan has registered a complaint with the collector’s office regarding payment being siphoned off from account of labourers. In some villages, there is no work available. In Tembhli village, where 50 per cent population of men has migrated to Gujarat for work in August, local residents claim work under MNREGA is hard to get.

Mohan Patil, a sugarcane farmer from Tembhli village, said: “Farming does not provide enough income. There is work requirement for land development and plantation work in Shahada, but when we ask for job, we don’t get any employment in MNREGA. There is hardly any work under that scheme in our village.”