Nawanshahr/Rahon - Convenor of National Labor Organization (NLO) Baldev Bharti expressed strong protest and described it as unfortunate that the MNREGA budget for the financial year 2024-25 has been set at only Rs 86000 crore by the central government. He said that this amount is Rs 19,297 crore less than Rs 1 lakh five thousand crore spent during the previous financial year 2023-24.
Baldev Bharti, Convener of NLO, giving details of the previous MGNREGA budgets, said that the central government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earmarked an amount of Rs 1,11,000 crore for MGNREGA during 2020-21. Which was later reduced continuously to Rs 98,000 crore for the year 2021-22, Rs 73,000 crore for the year 2022-23 and Rs 60,000 crore for the year 2023-24. Thus, even though the central government is patting itself on the back by declaring the budget of Rs 86,000 crore for the financial year 2024-25 more than the last several years, but this amount is much less than the requirement.
From this, it is clear that the central government is bent on ending MNREGA, a means of employment for rural workers, under the pretext. He also said that unemployment is rampant across the country. Due to all the circumstances, despite the huge demand for employment in MNREGA, instead of increasing the budget amount, the central government is adopting the 'mouth chopper policy'. Due to which there is a lot of anger among MNREGA workers.