Click to play videoNew Delhi/Jaipur: It has been eight months since the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the UPA Government’s flagship programme, was launched.
As of now, only 32 per cent of the available Rs 8,000 crore has been spent and now the Centre wants individual budget from the states to cut down on irresponsible expenditure.
"I am very happy to note that the NREGA programme has been welcomed by the rural public as well as the state government," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
Now, the Rural Development Ministry wants labour budgets for each state by the end of this year. This will allow states to spell out how much money they need to implement the scheme effectively.
"There is no dearth of money," Rural Development Minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Yadav said.
However, the picture is mixed. Of the entire available Rs 8,000 crore-fund given to 27 states, only 32 per cent has been spent so far.
In individual states like Madhya Pradesh the progress has been substantial - 70 per cent of the money given has been spent. While in Uttar Pradesh it's been as low as 18 per cent. And in Rajasthan it’s a good 50 per cent.
But in between these extremes what happens to the money not spent?
“We will ask for more after spending this amount,” Panchayat Minister, Rajasthan, Kalu Lal Gurjar said.
It's an uneven picture of performance so far in the first eight months of the National Rural Employment Gurantee Act.
The Government is trying to point out the implementation problems as residue from another era but overall on the front of financial performance with money being spent carefully, the discipline of planning seems to have been installed.
So, at least on paper the UPA Government's flagship scheme appears accountable to the public with nuts and bolts being as specific as the number of ponds dug but only by the end of the year when this budget comes out, the Centre will have a clear idea of the strength the scheme.
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