MGNREGA demand-driven scheme, fund allocation in Budget not low: Sitharaman

New Delhi [India], February 17 : Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said funds for MGNREGA depend on the demand for work and provision for allocations are made accordingly.
"Fund allocation for MGNREGA has not come down. It's a demand-driven scheme. As and when demand increases, provision for more funds is being made," said Sitharaman at a post-Budget press conference in Bhubaneswar.
Many, specially opposition political parties, raised questions about the funds that were budgeted for the rural job scheme for the financial year 2023-24.
The Union Budget allocated Rs 60,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme for 2023-24, 18 per cent lower than the Rs 73,000 crore budget estimates for the current year 2022-23, and about 33 per cent lower than the Rs 89,000 crore revised estimates for the current year.
The objectives of the MGNREGA are to provide at least one hundred days of unskilled manual work in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand, ensure social inclusion, and strengthen Panchayati Raj institutions.
Further, on the poor, she said the approach to deal with the poor, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is to empower them with all basic requirements.
"'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' is actually getting executed line by line," she added.