Question : Unpaid Labour Wages under MGNREGS

(a) whether the Government has huge liability of unpaid labour wages and other cost under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and if so, the details of liabilities and reasons therefor, State/UTwise;

(b) the details of effective budget estimate for rural job creation under MGNREGS in 2016-17;

(c) whether the Government has released/proposes to release funds against its liability over and above its budget estimate for MGNREGS in 2016-17 and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and

(d) the details of MGNREGS workers, who have not been paid their wages in 2015-16 and workers whose wages of 2015-16 are due for more than one month?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI RAM KRIPAL YADAV)

(a): Based on the data entry by States/ UTs in the Programme Management Information System (MIS), the State /UT-wise details of the unpaid liability on Unskilled wage, material, Administrative under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for the year 2016-17 (As on 20th March, 2017) is given in Annexure-I.

However, after completion of the data entry for the FY 2016-17, the liability amount can be squared up. The payment to MGNREGA workers are usually done in a cycle of 15 days after the closure of the muster roll. The liability accrued at the end of the financial year are paid in the month of April. All wage liabilities for FY 2016-17 will be released in the first half of April, 2017.

(b)to(d): Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a demand driven programme hence no State/UT- wise allocation of fund is made. The Central funds are released to the States/UTs on the basis of agreed to Labour Budget and taking into consideration the performance and the pace of utilization of available funds. The fund release to States/UTs is a continuous process and Central Government is committed to making funds available keeping in view the demand for work.

Ministry has released Rs. 47167.23 crore (as on 20.03.2017) to the States/UTs during Financial Year 2016-17. There was pending liability of Rs. 13163 crore at the end of financial year 2015-16 uploaded by States due to shortage of funds. The Ministry has released funds during 2016-17 to liquidate pending wage liability of States/UTs for the financial year 2015-16. Details of fund released to States/UTs under MGNREGS during the current year (as on 20.03.2017) is indicated at Annexure-II.

*****