Govt Spent Rs 5 Lakh Crore On MGNREGA Scheme In 8 Years, Says Nirmala Sitharaman

Sitharaman said the state was given Rs 20,000 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme in the past eight years

Nirmala Sitharaman, Union finance minister.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the central government has spent Rs 5 lakh crore on MGNREGA scheme during the past eight years, of which 20 per cent was spent during the Covid-19 pandemic, the PTI said.

According to the report, Sithraman, while speaking to reporters in Telangana, she said the state was given Rs 20,000 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) scheme in the past eight years. "During the past eight years, Telangana received Rs 20,000 crore under MGNREGA. During the same period all over the country Rs 5 lakh crore has been spent, out of which more than 20 per cent was spent in 2020-21 during the pandemic," she said.

The important issue in this is survey teams will come (to any state) if there are any complaints that the money was not spent accordingly or there are any remarks in the audit report.

Referring to the allegations that survey teams are being sent to curtail the scheme, she said the survey teams will come to correct the anomalies, if any.

During the UPA regime there were several loopholes in the scheme and the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi corrected them and is implementing it through direct benefit transfer (DBT), she further said.

Slamming the TRS government over alleged rising debt, farmers' distress and other issues, the minister said the state that used to be revenue surplus, has now gone into revenue deficit.

K Chandrashekar Rao’s government was taking loans without showing them in the budget and without informing the state assembly, she claimed.

Farmers' debt is rampant in the state and it is ranked fourth in farmers' suicides, Sitharaman further said.

The minister also accused the TRS government of changing the names of central schemes and projecting them as the state's schemes.

On Thursday, she attended the meeting of district office-bearers, mandal presidents and karyakartas of Zaheerabad Parliamentary Constituency at Kamareddy town as part of 'Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana'.