NEW DELH, Oct 7: On Saturday, the Congress said that the Narendra Modi administration “forced digitalization” in MGNREGA under the guise of transparency, using it as a tactic to deter people who actually needed the programme from applying for it. After a media report suggested that six months into the fiscal year, the major rural employment project, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), has run out of money, Congress national secretary Jairam Ramesh attacked the government.Ramesh said in a post on X that the MGNREGA budgeted amount of Rs. 60,000 crore for the entire year had been spent over the same six-month period while 48% of all vehicles sold in India between April and September of this fiscal year were SUVs. It also reflects the Modi government’s aims, which Ramesh claimed are indirectly stifling demand for MGNREGA employment by excessively delaying salary payments. “This not only clearly indicates the deepening rural distress and rising inequality across the country, but also demonstrates the Modi government’s priorities,” he said.The Modi administration, he claimed, “has forced digitalization in the name of transparency, while actually using it as a tool to discourage demand for MGNREGA among those who genuinely need the programme.” On the one hand, SUVs accounted for 48% of all vehicle sales in India during April to September 2023. On the other hand, the Rs. 60,000 crore allocated under MGNREGA for the year 2023–24 has already been used up in the first six months of this fiscal year.This not only shows very clearly… pic.twitter.com/HWxDgeZ1X0 — Jairam Ramesh on October 7, 2023 (@Jairam_Ramesh) By “inordinately delaying” the funding of social audits, the Centre was accused last week by the Congress of carrying out a “planned euthanasia” of MGNREGS. According to the Congress, this compromises the process, which the government uses to withhold funds to the states.
