Total expenditure under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) - including states contribution for materials used in the work - stood at Rs 1.05 lakh crore in 2023-24, against Rs 1.01 lakh crore in the previous year, showed preliminary data compiled by the rural development ministry. Erratic monsoon reduced the typical large-scale migration of workers to farm activities in the second quarter of the financial year, experts said.
After meeting the Prime Minister on December 20 last year, Chief Minister Banerjee had said that Modi assured her of holding a joint meeting of government officials to look into the state’s demands on releasing Central funds for various projects.
Nearly 95% of the budgetary allocation for FY24 has already been released. The additional funds will be included in the first batch of supplementary demands for grants and will bring the total outlay for the scheme closer to last year s level of ₹90,000 crore. The government aims to maintain its fiscal deficit target of 5.9% of GDP by cutting wasteful expenditures and reallocating savings.
In a written reply to a question asked by Congress member Gaurav Gogoi, Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said, “A field visit was made to Alwar district of Rajasthan for pilot testing of National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) app and after checking its applicability, the NMMS App was launched.”