The government will allocate more should the demand exceed its initial expectation under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which is a demand-driven programme.
The rural development ministry, in the pre-budget consultations, had sought ₹1.1 lakh crore for FY25, expecting higher demand for work and wage hikes.
As for the current fiscal, the government has approved an additional ₹14,524 crore, over and above the budgeted ₹60,000 crore, as part of its first batch of supplementary demands for grants with an indication that more funds could be granted if required. The government had spent about ₹90,000 crore under the scheme in FY23.
Of the enhanced outlay, ₹71,051 crore has been released so far this fiscal, showed the official data.More people sought work under the MGNREGS until December this fiscal year from a year before, mainly due to an erratic monsoon that prevented the usual migration of workers to farming coupled with a tentative industrial recovery, experts have said.Work demand from individuals under the MGNREGS rose over 3% until December this fiscal year from a year before to almost 260 million, thanks to elevated demand between July and October.The demand came from nearly 207 million households from April through December, recording a more than 6% increase from a year earlier. An up to a 10.4% increase in wage rates under the MGNREGS also raised expenditure.
Work demand for MGNREGS has moderated in the past two months amid heightened economic activity.
