PATNA: The Bihar government’s demand for an allotment of an additional 12.26 crore of mandays under the centrally sponsored Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( MGNREGS) for providing jobs to the poor has suffered a setback with the Centre allotting only 2.5 crore mandays for the time being, according to officials familiar with the matter.
The state had sought higher allotment of mandays in August after exhausting the annual allotment of 15 crore mandays by August due to high work allocation to job card holders based on demand under the flagship scheme in Bihar, sources said.
MGNREGA commissioner-cum-CEO Jeevika, Rahul Kumar said that the state had been allotted only 2.5 crore mandays against the allocation demand of additional 12.26 crore mandays for this fiscal.
“ The empowered committee of the MGNREGS on August 30 had approved only 2.5 crore mandays with certain conditions. We had sought 12.26 crore mandays for the rest of the year,” Kumar said.
According to officials, the empowered committee sanctions the labour budget of the job guarantee scheme..
“On average, 3 crore mandays were created every month from April to August. By that pace, we wanted additional mandays so that momentum of giving more jobs to job card holders could be achieved. But, now it seems there would be a slowdown in giving jobs,” said a senior officer in the rural development department (RDD).
The official added that the reason for the lower allotment of mandays is not known yet. “Budget constraints could be one of the factors,” he said.
Bihar has a total of 2.24crore job card holders (those eligible to demand work) of which 1.09crore are active workers under the scheme, which is supported by the Centre and a defined share is given by the state government. In the last fiscal year, Bihar had created 18 crore mandays as against the target of 20 crore whereas in 2020-21, 22 crore mandays were created which is attributed to higher work demand due to the heavy flow of migrant laboures back home after the pandemic broke out in 2020.
Incidentally, the state government is continuing to pursue pending bills under materials and construction head of the scheme worth ₹1000 crore even as Centre has released around ₹1400 crore under wages, officials said.
Evidently, the lower allotment of mandays against the demand by the state government coming just a month after the change in the dispensation in Bihar after JD(U)-RJD alignment has already raised many eyebrows in the government, officials said.
Moreover, officials in the rural development department ( RDD) said work under MGNREGS in Bihar slowing down in view of the lower allotment of additional mandays is highly probable as job demand under the scheme is expected to increase in the next few months after the end of the rainy season. Even the MGNREGA commissioner admitted lower allotment of mandays was a constraint as the job demand is higher from November till March when earthworks take place.
Rural development minister Sharvan Kumar could not be reached for comments despite repeated efforts.
