A staunch critic of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme rolled out by the erstwhile UPA government, there were apprehensions around its future once Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government came to power.
The BJP, which had supported the passage of the Bill in Parliament in 2004, but was critical of its implementation. The Bill, originally titled NREGA, was passed by both houses of Parliament by a voice vote in August 2005 and introduced in February, 2006.
On July 31, 2006, BJP leader LK Advani said the scheme was a recast of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government’s Sampoorna Rozgar Yojana, a food-for-jobs prorgamme, but noted that 100 days of guaranteed employment in a year to any rural household for unskilled manual work "is a very useful and necessary policy intervention in mitigating rural unemployment".
On December 12, 2006, BJP's M Venkaiah Naidu said the implementation of the scheme required greater accountability and transparency and called for rationalization of work norms and wages.
However, after the Modi dispensation came to power in 2014, criticism mounted against it over allegations of the government attempting to dilute the scheme. The government also marginally slashed the funds allocation towards the scheme to Rs 31,000 crore in the revised estimates in 2014-15 from Rs 34,000 crore.
The allocation for the scheme in 2009-10 stood at Rs 39,100 crore. In 2012-13, the final year of the UPA government, the allocation stood at Rs 33,000 crore.
Amid the cloud of uncertainty over the fate of the MGNREGS, and the government's repeated criticism of how ineffective it was, it was PM Modi who cleared the air in Parliament on February 28, 2015, less than a year after he had assumed charge as Prime Minister of India.
"I keep hearing talk that the government is planning to scrap MNREGA, or already has. My political sense tells me never to scrap MNREGA. Because MNREGA is a living monument to your failures. Aur main gaaje-baaje ke saath iska dhol peet-ta rahoonga. MNREGA rahega, aan-baan-shaan se rahega aur gaaje-baaje ke saath duniya mein bataya jayega," Modi said in Lok Sabha.
In a strong critique of the scheme, the Prime Minister mocked Congress members of fording Indians to dig pits 60 years after independence.
"Don't worry... whatever has to be added, will be added. Whatever strength has to be given... we will give it. Because we want the people to know who has left these ruins... who forced you to dig these pits even after so many years (of independence)," he remarked, telling the Congress that it had "left its footprints" for the people to know and understand.
A day after the Prime Minister's Lok Sabha speech, the government announced a hike in the allocation for the scheme from Rs 34,000 crore to Rs 34,699 crore. He also promised to enhance the allocation by an additional Rs 5,000 crore if there was tax buoyancy.
"In spite of the consequential reduced fiscal space for the Centre, the government has decided to continue supporting important national priorities such as agriculture, education, health, MGNREGA, and rural infrastructure, including roads," then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his speech, adding that the government was "committed to supporting employment through MGNREGA".
Ten years down the line, the scheme finds itself in another controversy as the Centre announced a change in the scheme's nomenclature, replacing the MGNREGS with the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) VB-G Ram G Bill.
The Bill proposes to raise the guarantee of wage employment to rural households to 125 days from 100 now in a financial year, and is likely to have a higher a financial burden on the states' coffers as it makes provision for sharing of funding of the scheme.
The Bill also proposes for the first time a pause in employment guarantee, "a total period aggregating to sixty days in a financial year, covering the peak agricultural seasons of sowing and harvesting” during which work shall not be undertaken."
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
