No constraint of funds for MGNREGA, payment to Bengal stopped due to non-compliance: Centre
Union Rural Development Ministry on Thursday said there was no constraint of funds for the rural job scheme MGNREGA and reiterated that funds for West Bengal were not released due to non-compliance of central directives. In a statement, the ministry said, «Funds of State of West Bengal have been stopped from March 9, 2022 as per provision of Section 27 of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 due to non-compliance of directives of Central Government.»
The statement came on a day West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress conducted a march to the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata to protest against the Centre over MGNREGA dues.
The TMC had also staged protests in Delhi on October 3 and 4 demanding release of funds by the Centre.
In its statement, the ministry said that by October 4, Rs 56,105.69 crore out of the Rs 60,000 crore budget for the scheme has been released.
«Availability of funds is not a constraint for the implementation of the programme,» it said.
The ministry said MGNREGA is a demand-driven wage employment programme and fund release to states and Union territories is a continuous process and the central government is making funds available keeping in view the demand for work.
The ministry seeks additional fund for the scheme as and when required for meeting the demand for work on the ground, it stated.
«The ministry has been making all efforts to pay wages in time.
States/UTs have been advised to generate pay orders in time,» the statement stated, adding that it has resulted in considerable improvement in the status of timely generation of pay order and leading to improvement in actual time taken to credit wages in the workers account.
The ministry said that in the current financial year till
