Congress and Left party members on Tuesday alleged that the government was slashing the number of work days under the rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGA.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Congress member KC Venugopal referred to reports that the government was cutting down the number of working days in various parts of the country.

“In Alappuzha district (Kerala), the demand was ₹73.94 lakh equivalent work days. However, for 2017-18, only ₹39.5 lakh equivalent work days have been sanctioned,” he said, adding that this was because of “unnecessary conditions imposed by the government to release the amount under MGNREGA”.

Venugopal said the slashing of work days was happening despite the efficient implementation of the scheme in Alappuzha, where in this financial year, ₹79 lakh equivalent work days had been completed, against the expected ₹55.87 lakh equivalent work days.

The Congress member said in the current financial year, the estimated Budget for the scheme was ₹193 crore, but till now the current expenditure was ₹270 crore.

Venugopal was backed by CPI(M) members in the House. Jitendra Choudhury, an MP from Tripura, said last year his State was given a budget for only for 78 work days.

“But till today, we have achieved 90 work days. In the last seven years, we have been doing this continuously,” he said, adding that this year, in the Budget for the Ministry of Labour, as per the information published by the Ministry, a provision has been made for only 38 man days for Tripura.

“I demand that it should be for 200 days,” he added.

Under MGNREGA, 100 days of work every year is assured to rural households across the country, and 150 days in some tribal areas.

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