MGNREGA fund at Rs 60,000 crore, 11 percent higher than previous budget

The government on Friday proposed to allocate Rs 60,000 crore for rural employment scheme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for the year 2019-20. The amount allocated for 2019-20 is 11 per cent higher compared to Rs 55,000 crore allocated for the year 2018-19.

The revised estimate of the scheme for the year 2018-19 was Rs 61,084.09 crore, according to official data. Presenting the interim Union Budget in Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday announced an allocation of Rs 60,000 crores for MGNREGA for budget estimates 2019-20.

Additional allocations will be made, if required, he said. The government has ensured that everybody gets food and nobody sleeps with an empty stomach. "We have worked to bridge urban-rural divide in the country. We are allocating Rs 60,000 crore for MGNREGA," Goyal said.

The rural job guarantee scheme, introduced in 2005, now covers all the rural districts of the country. The objectives of the scheme involves providing up to 100 days of unskilled manual work in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand resulting in creation of productive assets, the government said in the budget document.

(With inputs from agencies.)