Uttar Pradesh, with a population that is almost triple that of Tamil Nadu, gets less funding under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Scheme (MGNREGS), the Rural Development Ministry claimed on Tuesday (March 25, 2025), during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha. The claim — which is not borne out by the fiscal data on the MGNREGA website — led to strong protests from the Opposition, forcing Speaker Om Birla to adjourn the House for 15 minutes.
The fracas began when DMK MP K. Kanimozhi asked when the Union government will release ₹4,034 crore worth of MGNREGS funds that it owes to Tamil Nadu for the past five months. In response, Minister of State for Rural Development Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said that Tamil Nadu has already received ₹7,300 crore in this fiscal year. “Tamil Nadu has a population of seven crore, U.P. has a population of 20 crore. U.P. draws close to ₹10,000 crore, Tamil Nadu draws more than ₹10,000 crore. There is no question of not giving money,” Mr. Pemmasani said.
The ‘At A Glance’ report on the MGNREGS website, however, shows that the total expenditure in the ongoing fiscal year for Uttar Pradesh stands at ₹11,860 crore, while for Tamil Nadu it is ₹10,687 crore. So far this year, the Centre has released ₹9,758 crore to Uttar Pradesh and ₹7,414 crore to Tamil Nadu.
‘Demand-driven scheme’
The wider point that MGNREGS fund allocation is not made on the basis of State population anyway is clear from the Ministry’s own response to a query earlier in the day. In a written reply to a question from Trinamool Congress MP Bapi Haldar, the Ministry said that MGNREGS “is a demand driven wage employment Scheme”, which means that fund outlay is dependent only on the demand for work as raised by the State, and not its population size.
Mr. Pemmasani’s remarks provoked strong protests by the DMK members. At that point, Union Minister for Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan intervened, in an attempt to calm tempers. “Be it Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, the Modi government has never discriminated against any State. The pending MGNREGA dues, including material costs, will be released soon,” he said.
He added that under the Congress-led UPA government from 2006-07 to 2013-14, only 111 crore person-days of work was generated under the scheme in West Bengal. Under the NDA government, on the other hand, 239 crore person-days have been generated in the State, and funds have been allocated to the tune of ₹54,515 crore.
Opposition protests
The Opposition was already agitated by Mr. Pemmasani’s replies to Mr. Haldar, the TMC MP, and Congress MP Adoor Prakash on pending dues to their respective States, West Bengal and Kerala. After the Minister’s remarks on Tamil Nadu, DMK and Trinamool Congress MPs entered the Well of the House, staging strong protests. Congress and Samajwadi Party MPs joined the protests too, rising from their seats in solidarity, with some of them standing near the Well.
The Speaker, Mr. Birla, urged them to return to their seats, but they did not budge. Following this, the House was adjourned for about 15 minutes till noon.
West Bengal fund delays
The primary question came from Mr. Haldar, who asked why the Union government has not yet released the MGNREGS wages due to workers in West Bengal. Mr. Pemmasani said that “multiple things went wrong” in the implementation of the scheme in West Bengal. First, there was “misappropriation” of funds and there were instances when works were split and given to contractors on a nominated basis, he said.
“We sent an audit [team]. They found 44 works where there were irregularities. They made full recovery in 34 cases. Still, 10 other works need to be completed. The financial misappropriation was to the tune of ₹5.37 crore. Out of this, they have recovered ₹2.39 crore. Some of the things still need to be taken care of,” Mr. Pemmasani said.
Mr. Pemmasani added that as soon as these things are taken care of, Mr. Chouhan would sit with the State’s Minister and resolve the issues.
‘MGNREGS workforce falling’
The Congress MP, Mr. Prakash, asked a supplementary question flagging the fall in the MGNREGS workforce, attributing it to delayed payments and low wages. He pointed out that workers in Kerala have not received wages for the past three months, claiming that the Centre owes the State ₹811 crore.
Mr. Pemmasani refuted the claims of withholding funds, stating that Kerala has already received nearly ₹3,000 crore this year.
“Last year, Kerala got ₹3,500 crore. The release of payments is a continuous process, and whatever is pending will be cleared within the next few weeks,” he assured the House. Mr. Pemmasani said that before 2013-14, there was no mechanism for fixing the wages, but later wages were as per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for agricultural labourers. “If you see the last four to five years, cumulatively, we have increased wages by 43%,” he said.
The Minister said that, under MGNREGS, the highest daily wage of ₹374 is paid in Haryana. In Kerala and Karnataka, close to ₹350 is paid, while the lowest rate is in some of the northeastern States where only ₹234 is paid.
Published – March 25, 2025 09:33 pm IST
