The Right to Food Campaign stands in solidarity with the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha’s national call for action across the country to revive the proper functioning of MGNREGA. The Right to Food Campaign is extremely concerned and anguished with the continued violation of MGNREGA across the country. MGNREGA is being implemented in a manner that is contrary to its spirit. Millions of workers have not been paid for the work they have done for several months, leading to a situation of bonded labour under a government programme. Due to the existence of systematic corruption within MGNREGA on a large scale, in states like West Bengal, both the union government and the state government have not been able to resolve the issues related to the release of payments which led to a severe burden on workers. Around 2700 crores of wages are pending since December 2021 alone in West Bengal.
https://countercurrents.org/2022/09/right-to-food-campaign-demands-proper-functioning-of-mgnrega/
MGNREGA which directly provides employment and also helps create rural assets has been short-shifted by this budget. Despite over ₹21,000 crores of pending liabilities, the allocation under MGNREGA is only 73,000 crore, while in 2020-21 the spending under the schemes was over 1.1 lakh crore. The negative impact of the economic crisis that began even before the pandemic led to disruption has fallen disproportionately on those at the bottom of the pyramid. Multiple reports and surveys capture the intense distress among the poor and marginalised sections of society exacerbated due to the pandemic and ensuing restrictions and further slowdown of the economy. In this context, spending on social protection schemes such as the MGNREGA became especially important to improve rural distress.
Press Release
22/09/2022
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