14-Dec-2022: Review of Implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

The Ministry has a comprehensive system of monitoring and review mechanism for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS). The important elements of the above framework are listed below:

1. The Ministry regularly reviews the performance of the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in States/UTs through various for a viz., Mid-Term Review, Labour Budget Determination and Labour Budget Revision meetings, and Programme Review meetings. Central Employment Guarantee Council and State Employment Guarantee Councils also periodically monitor implementation of the Scheme.
2. National Level Monitors, Common Review Missions and Officers of the Ministry visit States/UTs at regular intervals to review the implementation of the programme. After the field visits, the findings/shortcomings and recommendations are shared with the States/UTs for appropriate action at their end.
3. Auditing Standards for Social Audit have been issued and States/UTs have been advised to establish independent Social Audit Units, conduct Social Audit as per Audit of Scheme Rules, 2011 and training of village resource persons for conducting Social Audit etc. As per the Audit of the Scheme Rules, the audit of the works in a Gram Panchayat has been made mandatory. Internal Audit Teams of the Department also conduct regular audits.
4. Steps have been taken to strengthen transparency and accountability which include geo-tagging of assets, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), National electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS), Aadhar Based Payment System (ABPS), Software for Estimate Calculation using rural rates for Employment (SECURE) and appointment of Ombudsperson in every district of States/UTs.
5. Steps have been taken for establishment of State Technical Cell at various level for qualitative monitoring and supervision of works under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.
6. In order to ensure higher level of monitoring and oversight, National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) App and Area Officer App have been introduced. In the former, attendance of workers on a particular work, where more than 20 workers are employed is taken daily along with a geo-tagged & time stamped photograph of theirs. The latter has been designed to ensure that field officials conduct inspections in the requisite numbers and look into all the relevant aspects of the scheme.
7. Transparency and accountability measures like an Ombudsperson for each district, an independent Director for the Social Audit Unit, and timely compliance of Internal Audit Paras are some of the conditions for the funds release.
8. NMMS WhatsApp groups have been created at every Gram Panchayat for dissemination of real time attendance to Public Representative for vigilant monitoring.

Mahatma Gandhi NREGS is a demand driven wage employment Scheme and funds are released to the States/UTs on the basis of "agreed to" Labour Budget and performance of the States during the financial year.

Fund release to States/UTs is a continuous process and Central Government is committed to making funds available keeping in view, the performance of the State and demand for works by the beneficiaries. The Ministry seeks additional funds from Ministry of Finance as and when required for meeting the demand for work on the ground. For current financial year 2022-23 there is a budget allocation (BE) of Rs. 73000 crore for implementation for Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.

2-Aug-2022: Revision of Permission Work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment Scheme. The core objective of the Scheme is to provide not less than 100 days of unskilled manual work as a guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand, resulting in creation of productive assets of prescribed quality and durability.

The details of households demanded employment and households offered employment under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in last three financial years 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and current financial year 2022-23 (as on 31.07.2022) is given below:

(as per NREGA Soft)

As per Section 29 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA), Central Government may add new works in the permissible list of works under Schedule 1 of the Act. Adding new works under Schedule 1 of the Act is a regular exercise and new works are added on the basis of merit in alignment with focus and objectives of the Act.

As per Schedule 1 of Act, there are 265 permissible works under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA.

The demand from States to add work in the list of permissible works is examined in consultation with stakeholders. Also, the list of permissible works is reviewed annually by a Committee of Central Government having different States as member of the Committee.

Recently, plantation of Dragon-fruit under horticulture plantation has been permitted under the Scheme against the request from States keeping in view the local requirement and adherence of the provisions of the Act.

Some of recently added works in the list of permissible works under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA are given below:

1. Construction of bio-gas plant for individual;
2. Unskilled wage component towards the construction of bio-gas plant for community;
3. Maintenance of tunnel constructed by Border Road Organisation (BRO); and
4. Maintenance of bridges constructed by Border Road Organisation (BRO).

2-Aug-2022: Women Workers under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment Scheme which provides for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. It provides livelihood security, i.e. fall back options for livelihood for the rural households, when no better employment opportunity is available.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, requires that priority be given to women in such a way that at least one-third of the beneficiaries be women. Mahatma Gandhi NREG Scheme is a gender neutral programme which promotes participation of women by providing wage parity with men, provision of separate schedule of rates of wages for women, facilities for crèche, work-side sheds for children, and child care services. In convergence with National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), women mates have also been introduced, which again facilitate the participation of women. The Scheme also endeavours to provide works near the residence of the beneficiaries.

Under the scheme, worksite facilities such as drinking water, shed, medicines etc. is to be mandatorily provided. Failure to provide this attracts penalty on the officials concerned. Further, the availability of these facilities are checked during inspections and social audits. Other fora for redressal of grievances can also be set in motion on its denial.

The rate of participation of women (women person-days out of total in percentage) in Mahatma Gandhi NREGS during the last three financial years and current financial year 2022-23 (as on 29.07.2022) is given below:

The average days of employment provided per households under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS during the last three financial year is given below:

27-Jul-2022: Allocation of Funds under MGNREGS

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment scheme which provides for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. There is no State/UT-wise allocation of funds under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.

The financial allocation under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS for financial year 2020-21 was enhanced from Rs.61,500 crore at Budget Estimate stage to Rs.1,11,500 crore at Revised Estimate stage. In financial year 2021-22, the financial allocation for Mahatma Gandhi NREGS was increased from Rs.73,000 crore at Budget Estimate stage to Rs. 98,000 crore at Revised Estimate stage.

Fund release to States/UTs is a continuous process and Central Government is committed in making funds available to States/UTs for the implementation of the scheme, keeping in view the demand for work on ground.

27-Jul-2022: Change of Mode of Attendance of MGNREGA workers

To ensure more transparency in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) in the States/UTs, a provision for capturing of attendance at worksite through National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) App with geo-tagged time stamped photographs of the worker in a day has been started on 21st May 2021, wherein muster rolls are issued for 20 or more workers. This increases citizen oversight of the programme besides potentially enabling faster processing of payments.

Government of India has decided that from 16.05.2022, the workers attendance will be captured only through NMMS App for all the worksites where muster rolls are issued for 20 or more beneficiaries based on the feedback and suggestions from States/UTs. One year time, thus, has been provided as transition period.

Women mates are encouraged to take the responsibility of capturing the attendance of the workers through the NMMS App. The Ministry has been providing training to the States/UTs to ensure smooth transitioning to NMMS app as and when requested by the States/UTs. The technical issues being faced are taken up with NIC, Rural Development on real time basis. The new provisions/ suggestions requested by the States/UTs are being incorporated. All the issues concerning the NMMS application are reviewed and resolved from time to time.

Some important decisions taken as per request of State Governments are given below:

1. NMMS application has been modified to capture second photograph just after the 4 hours from the uploading of attendance and first photograph. It eases out the specific time point requirement for capturing the attendance and photographs. The morning attendance along with the first photograph can be captured in offline mode and uploaded once device comes in network.
2. In case of exceptional circumstances due to which attendance could not be uploaded, the District Programme Coordinator (DPC) has been authorised to upload the manual attendance.

The NMMS mobile app is available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

26-Jul-2022: Inclusion of Self Help Groups Under MGNREGS

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment programme which provides for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

As per Schedule I, Para 4(1) of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005, works under the sub-head III: Category C: Common Infrastructure [including for NRLM] compliant Self Help Groups - (ii) Common work-sheds for livelihood activities of self-help groups; and sub-head IV: Category D: Rural Infrastructure - (v) Construction of buildings for women self-help groups’ federations at the village or block level are permissible activities.

As per the Schedule I, Para 25, sub-para (b) Self Help Groups can be involved for the purpose of concurrent social audit.

The Cluster Level Federation (CLF) under NRLM has been assigned as Programme Implementing Agency for implementation of plantation (Moringa) work, raising of Nursery (Moringa), road side plantation and also for facilitation in the Agri-Nutri garden works in convergence with NRLM. The Self Help Group women are also being engaged as “mate” for the works being taken up under Mahatma Gandhi NREG Scheme.

The responsibility of implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA is vested with the Government of States/UTs. The Ministry has a comprehensive system of monitoring and review mechanism for Mahatma Gandhi NREGS for the proper implementation of the Scheme including curbing corruption under the Scheme. Some of the important elements of the above framework are listed below:

1. The Ministry regularly reviews the performance of the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in States/UTs through various fora viz., Mid-Term Review, Labour Budget meetings, Labour Budget Revision meetings and Programme Review meetings. Further, Central Employment Guarantee Council and State Employment Guarantee Councils periodically monitor implementation of the programme.
2. National Level Monitors, Common Review Missions and Officers of the Ministry visit States/UTs at regular interval to review implementation of the programme. After the field visits, the findings/shortcomings and recommendations are shared with the States/UTs for appropriate action at their end.
3. Auditing Standards for Social Audit have been issued and States/UTs have been advised to establish independent Social Audit Units, conduct Social Audit as per Audit of Scheme Rules, 2011 and training of village resource persons for conducting Social Audit etc. Internal Audit Teams of the Department also conduct regular audit.
4. Steps have been taken to strengthen transparency and accountability which include geo-tagging of assets, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), National electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS), Aadhar Based Payment System (ABPS), Software for Estimate Calculation using rural rates for Employment (SECURE) and appointment of Ombudsperson in every district of States/UTs.
5. Steps have been taken for establishment of State Technical Cell at various level for qualitative monitoring and supervision of works under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.
6. In order to ensure higher level of monitoring and oversight, National Mobile Monitoring System and Area Officer App have been introduced. In the former, attendance of workers on a particular work, where more than 20 workers are employed is taken daily along with a geo-tagged & time stamped photograph of theirs. The latter has been designed to ensure that field officials do conduct inspections in the requisite numbers and look into all the relevant aspects of the scheme.
7. In addition, Central and State Employment Guarantee Councils, District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committees (DISHA) and also PRIs take up the monitoring and oversight of the Programme.

26-Jul-2022: Impact of Migration of Labourers on MGNREGS

There is no specific information available regarding large scale migration of labourers from rural, tribal and remote areas to urban areas in search of employment. However, as per Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted during July 2020 – June 2021, the estimated percentage distribution of migrants in urban areas by reason for migration is as follows: 

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment programme which provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. It provides livelihood security, i.e. fall back options for livelihood for the rural households, when no better employment opportunity is available and mitigates to some extent push factors for migration.

The details of employment provided (in person-days generated) under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in last three financial year 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 and current financial year 2022-23 (as on 21.07.2022) is as follows:

22-Mar-2022: Participation of Rural Women in MGNREGS

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment programme which provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

As per the Para 15 of Schedule-II of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, “Priority shall be given to women in such a way that at least one-third of the beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested for work. Efforts to increase participation of single women and the disabled shall be made”.

Mahatma Gandhi NREGS is a gender positive programme which promotes participation of women by providing wage parity with men, provision of separate schedule of rates of wages for women, facilities for crèche, work-side sheds for children and child care services. In convergence with Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), women mates have also been introduced, which again facilitate the participation of women. The Scheme also endeavors to provide works near the residence of the beneficiaries. These measures enhance participation of women.

The rate of participation of women and the computed women person days in Mahatma Gandhi NREGS during the last three financial years and current financial year 2021-22 (as on 19.03.2022) is given below:

(As per MIS)

As per the Schedule I of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, construction of check dams are permissible under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. The details of completed and ongoing works of check dams along with expenditure incurred under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS since inception as on 19.03.2022 is given below:

The details of completed and ongoing works of check dams constructed under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS since inception as on 19.03.2022

9-Feb-2022: Status of Employment and Funds under MGNREGS

The details of households demanded employment, households offered employment and the percentage of offered employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) in the current financial years 2021-22 (as on 04.02.2022) is given below:

Mahatma Gandhi NREGS is a demand driven Scheme. As per the Scheme, a rural household is eligible for at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment against their demand for wage employment. In the current FY 2021-22 against the total demand for wage employment, a total of 99.34% has been offered wage employment. In case of non-offering of work, the beneficiary is eligible for unemployment allowances to be paid by the State as per provision of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA).

As per the provisions mentioned in Schedule-II of the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, wage seekers shall be entitled to receive payment of compensation for the delay, at the rate of 0.05% of the unpaid wages per day of delay beyond the sixteenth day of closure of muster roll.

As per Schedule-II para 29 (1) (d) of the Act, the State Government shall pay the compensation upfront after due verification within the time limits as specified above and recover the compensation amount from the functionaries or agencies who are responsible for the delay in payment.

Mahatma Gandhi NREGS is a demand driven wage employment programme and funds are released to the States/UTs on the basis of "agreed to" Labour Budget (LB) and performance of the States/UTs during the financial year. No States/UTs wise financial allocation is made under the Scheme.

In the current financial year 2021-22 (as on 03.02.2022), an amount of Rs. 81,406.73 crore has been released to States/UTs for the implementation of the Scheme.

In the Financial Year 2021-22, the budget provision at Budget Estimate (BE) stage was Rs. 73,000 crore. The Ministry has requested for additional budget allocation which has been enhanced to Rs. 98,000 crore at the Revised Estimate (RE) stage as per the requirement of funds. Fund release to the States/UTs is a continuous process and Central Government is committed in making funds available keeping in view the demand for work on the ground.

3-Feb-2022: Urban MGNREGA Programme to provide employment

The data on employment/ unemployment is collected through Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) since 2017-18. As per the latest PLFS report of 2019-20, the unemployment rate for persons of 15 years and above on usual status basis in urban areas was 6.9% which was 7.6% in 2018-19 and 7.7% in 2017-18.

Government has launched All-India Quarterly Establishment Based Employment Survey (AQEES) in April, 2021. As per the result of the second round of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) for the period July to September 2021, employment increased to 3.10 crore in the nine selected sectors of the economy which was 3.08 crore during the first round of QES (April-June, 2021) against a total of 2.37 crores in these sectors taken collectively, as reported in the sixth Economic Census (2013-14). Of the total employment estimated in the selected nine sectors, Manufacturing accounted for nearly 39%, followed by Education with 22% and Health as well as IT/BPOs sectors both around 10%. Trade and Transport sectors engaged 5.3% and 4.6% of the total estimated workers respectively.

19-Nov-2021: Geographical Information System (GIS) plans for around 75% Gram Panchayats completed

The Ministry of Rural Development has reached an important milestone with the completion of Geographical Information System (GIS) plans for 2 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) out of 2.69 lakh GPs under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA using remote sensing technology based on the ridge to valley approach. GIS-based planning under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS is an initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development which helps the Gram Panchayat to ensure a scientific & holistic approach for planning at the Gram Panchayat level. It is an important tool to ensure participatory planning at the implementation level.

The Ministry has provided detailed training on usage of GIS & RS (Remote Sensing) technology to Mahatma Gandhi NREGS functionaries of States/UTs through the initiative of the Ministry and NIRDPR (National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj). Thereafter, all the States/UTs prepared 4 GIS-based plans of GPs per block in FY 2020-21 as pilots, which was extended to all GP’s after successful completion.

Contributions of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS has enhanced significantly by using the GIS-Based Planning approach and impacts of which is visible at ground level. The development of quality assets at the Gram Panchayat level has been taking place through proper planning and decision making.

Mahatma Gandhi NREGS has always emphasized Natural Resource Management (NRM) based planning to enhance the livelihood and NRM resource base in rural areas. The systematic development of land, harnessing of rainwater following watershed principles (Ridge to Valley Approach) and creation of income-generating assets has become important aspect of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS works. The planning of works under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS are now carried out using advanced technologies viz. Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS). Leveraged for this purpose is the much acclaimed ‘Bhuvan’ space technology solution from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

To further facilitate Gram Panchayat level planning of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS activities across India, Yuktdhara Geospatial Planning portal has been developed on Bhuvan Platform by National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA division MoRD. This planning portal also helps the other Ministries and Departments to see the geographical location of planned assets on a map in the web management system, which integrates planning for works, optimises convergence plans and facilitates effective monitoring of the implementation of works and creation of assets.

The Ministry is also working towards integrating climate data with the above data through a joint initiative with FCDO of the UK, known as CRISP-M, which will further enable the local communities to understand the impact of changing climate in terms of various geophysical parameters and make smart decisions on them. This is initially proposed to be taken up in seven states viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and will be expanded later to all other states as well.

Geographical Information System (GIS): The GIS is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing the geographic terrain and offers scientific choices of development works suitable to the area. This technology integrates common database operations such as query and statistical analysis with the unique visualization and geographic analysis benefits offered by the maps.

23-Aug-2021: New portal under Bhuvan “Yuktdhara” will facilitate planning of new MGNREGA assets using Remote Sensing and GIS based information

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Science and Technology; Ministry of Earth Sciences and Union Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office; Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, Shri Jitendra Singh said that the new portal under Bhuvan “Yuktdhara”, which has been released today, will facilitate planning of new MGNREGA assets using Remote Sensing and GIS based information. The Minister said that this platform will serve as a repository of assets (Geotags) created under various national rural development programmes i.e. MGNREGA, Integrated Watershed Management Programme, Per Drop More Crop and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana etc., along with field photographs.

Speaking at the launch of “Yuktdhara” Geospatial Planning Portal by Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Shri Giriraj Singh, Dr. Singh said that the name given is very apt as word ‘Yukt’ is derived from Yojanam, the planning and ‘Dhara’ indicates the flow. He said that it is definitely a culmination of untiring joint efforts of ISRO and Ministry of Rural development made towards realising a G2G service for rural planning in support of decentralized decision making.

Dr. Singh acknowledged the potential and services of ISRO’s Geoportal Bhuvan and said highlighted that due to its rich information base, satellite images and analytical capabilities, Bhuvan, in fact, has become a de-facto geospatial platform for number of developmental planning activities in the country.

The Minister said that The high point is that, this portal integrates wide variety of thematic layers, multi-temporal high resolution earth observation data with analysis tools. Planners will analyse previous assets under various schemes and facilitates identification of new works using online tools. Plans prepared will be evaluated by appropriate authorities under State Departments. Thus, Yuktdhara based plans will be prepared by grassroot functionary and verified by appropriate authorities for relevance and resource allocation. This would ensure quality of plan and enable a long term monitoring of the assets created over the years.

The Minister pointed out that GeoMGNREGA on Bhuvan has received wide acclaims. The Before-During-After Geotagging of assets has successfully implemented the progress based disbursement of the funds during the process of creation of rural assets. Also, a Citizen-centric Mobile Application JANMANREGA has helped rural population for providing feedback using Bhuvan services. He was of the view that the synergy of Geographic Information and Earth Observation technology has not only brought the value of location to each rural asset, but also brought in unprecedented transparency in MGNREGA programme.

Dr. Singh said that the Customisation on Bhuvan as per process requirement of Ministry of Rural Development, continuous handholding of State functionaries and also enthusiasm demonstrated by State Department personnel in adopting the technology for building GeoMGNREGA database is noteworthy and is a first of its kind massive exercise in the whole world.

6-Aug-2021: 99.7 per cent payment of MGNREGA wages being made through e-transfer

“The e-transfer of fund payment system is implemented in all over the India except 4 IAP districts of Chhattisgarh and 42 blocks of Manipur State where the cash payment system is going on with the permission of Government of India. In this e-transfer system, the payment is getting credited in to the Bank/Post office account of the beneficiary directly. At present 99.7 per cent payment is made through e-transfer”.

Mahatma Gandhi NREG Act, 2005 is to provide at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult member volunteers to do unskilled manual work. State can provide additional man-days of work over and above of 100 days from its own resources. An additional 50 days of wage employment is provided over and above 100 days in the notified drought affected areas or natural calamity areas in the country on recommendation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. At present, there is no plan to increase days of work under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA.

As per section 6(1) of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA), the Central Government may, by notification, specify the wage rate for its beneficiaries. Accordingly, the Ministry of Rural Development notifies Mahatma Gandhi NREGA wage rate every year for States/UTs.  To compensate the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers against inflation, the Ministry of Rural Development revises the wage rate every year based on change in Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPI-AL).  The wage rate is made applicable from 1st April of each Financial Year.

30-Jul-2021: More than 3.9 lakh households completed 100 days of work under MGNREGA in April - June, 2021

A total of 3,91,112 households have completed 100 days of work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA) in the months of April- June, 2021, including Karnataka. In the State of Karnataka, 2372 households have completed 100 days of work under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA in the months of April- June, 2021.

A total of 3,18,532 households have completed 100 days of work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA) in the months of April- June, 2020.

Mahatma Gandhi NREG Act, 2005 is to provide at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult member volunteers to do unskilled manual work. State can provide additional man-days of work over and above of 100 days from its own resources. An additional 50 days of wage employment is provided over and above 100 days in the notified drought affected areas or natural calamity areas in the country on recommendation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. At present, there is no plan to increase days of work under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA.

27-Jul-2021: The Government allocated Rs. 73,000 crore for MGNREGS for 2021-22; an increase of Rs. 11,500 crore as compared to the FY 2020-21

The Government of India has allocated Rs. 73,000 crore at Budget Estimate stage for current financial year 2021-22 for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) which is an increase of Rs. 11,500 crore as compared to Budget Estimate for the financial year 2020-21.

In the current FY 2021-22 (as on 23.07.2021), a total of 6.51 crore persons have been provided employment under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment programme, which provides for livelihood security by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. During previous financial year 2020-21, 11.19 crore persons were provided employment and more than 389.23 crore person-days were generated. In current financial year 2021-22 (as on 23.07.2021), 6.51 crore persons have been provided employment and more than 130.9 crore person-days have been generated under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. During the financial year 2020-21, an amount Rs. 1, 11, 170.86 crore has been released and an amount of Rs. 41,187.06 crore has been released in current financial year 2021-22 (as on 20.07.2021) for the implementation of programme.

Mahatma Gandhi NREGS aims to strengthen the livelihood resource base of the rural households while creating productive assets. So far, more than 25 lakh assets have been created in the current FY 2021-22. The Act also mandates expenditure of 60% for creation of assets directly related to agriculture and allied activities through development of land, water and trees. In the current FY 2021-22, so far, 73% of the expenditure is incurred on agriculture and allied works.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment programme. Hence, no State/UT-wise (including Tamil Nadu) financial allocation is made. During the current FY 2021-22 (as on 22.07.2021), an amount of Rs. 3322.73 crore has been released by Central Government to the state of Tamil Nadu under Mahatma Gandhi NREG Scheme.

2-Jun-2020: 21st meeting of Central Employment Guarantee Council

The 21st Meeting of the Central Employment Guarantee Council, constituted under Section 10 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA), 2005 was held on 02.06.2020 under the Chairmanship of Union Minister of Rural Development, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Panchayati Raj, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar through Video-Conferencing.

Addressing the participants, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar stated that Mahatma Gandhi NREGA is one of the largest employment generating schemes which provides alternative employment to the people in rural areas. The Programme has 261 permissible works out of which 164 types of works are relating to agriculture and allied activities. The Government has accorded priority on creation of individual assets and assets on water conservation/irrigation which would help agriculture sector.

With a view to achieving transparency and accountability, the Government has been taking all steps to achieve 100% payment of wages in the bank account of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers and accordingly emphasis on social audit of works.  For the Financial Year 2020-21, Rs.61,500 crore has been allocated which is an all-time high. Additional provision of Rs.40,000 crore has been made for this programme under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to provide employment to the needy workers during this difficult period arising of COVID-19.  Under the programme, a sum of Rs.28,000 core has already been released to the States/UTs.

Minister of State for Rural Development, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, highlighted the good works done under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA by providing employment to rural people during these difficult days. She stressed on more irrigation and water conservation activities under the scheme so that the farmers get benefitted.

During the meeting, all participating members gave their valuable suggestions for improving the scheme. Shri Narendra Singh Tomar assured to consider all the suggestions under the ambit of the Act.

21-Apr-2017: One Crore MGNREGA assets geotagged

Mahatma Gandhi NREGS has reached a new milestone today by geotagging one Crore assets and putting them in public domain.

The scale of rural assets created under MGNREGA is very large. Since the inception of the programme in financial year 2006-07, about 2.82 Crore assets have been created under the programme. On an average, about 30 Lakh Assets are created annually which includes a variety of works such as water harvesting structures, plantations, rural infrastructure, flood control measures, individual assets for sustainable livelihood, community infrastructure and so on. The process of geotagging is going on and all assets under MGNREGS will be geotagged. Special focus is being given to geotag Natural Resource Management works especially the water related works.

GeoMGNREGA is a unique endeavor of the Ministry of Rural Development in association with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO and National Informatics Centre. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Ministry of Rural Development with NRSC on 24th June 2016 for geo-tagging the assets created under MGNREGS in each gram panchayat. Strength of Space technology has been leveraged.

Pursuant to the signing of MoU, training manuals were developed in consultation with NRSC. Training was imparted to around 2.76 Lakh personnel across the country with the help of National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR). The training programme was conducted in the last week of August, 2016. The geotagging exercise started from 1st September, 2016. One Crore assets have been geotagged and put in public domain in the last seven months. It is expected that the exercise will lead to greater transparency and ensure accountability at field level.