Editorial with Sujit Nair: MGNREGA Runs Out Of Funds | Nirmala Sitharaman | PM Modi | BJP Congress - video Dailymotion

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Join Our WhatsApp Group: https://linktr.ee/sujitnair  In this editorial segment, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses the current status of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and its financial challenges. As of six months into the fiscal year, the MGNREGS, a prominent rural employment initiative, has exhausted its funds. According to data released by the Ministry on its official website, there is a deficit of ₹6,146.93 crore in the scheme's finances.  For the fiscal year 2023-24, an allocation of ₹60,000 crore was made for the MGNREGS, which is 18% lower than the budget estimates of ₹73,000 crore and 33% lower than the revised estimates of ₹89,000 crore for the previous fiscal year, 2022-23.  Informed sources have revealed that on September 15, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) approached the Finance Ministry requesting a supplementary budget of ₹23,000 crore. However, there has been no response from the Finance Ministry regarding this proposal.  In response to criticism from Opposition parties regarding budget cuts, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasized that the MGNREGS operates on a demand-driven basis, and additional funds will be provided whenever there is a need.  In a statement released on a Thursday, the MoRD reiterated this point, highlighting that the MGNREGS is a demand-driven wage employment program. It explained that fund allocation to states and union territories is an ongoing process, considering factors such as the demand for work, labor budget, opening balance, pending liabilities from the previous year, and overall program performance. The Ministry further stated that it requests additional funds for the MGNREGS as needed to meet the ground-level demand for employment.  According to Ministry data as of October 4, out of the ₹60,000 crore sanctioned, ₹56,105.69 crore (93.5% of the funds) had been disbursed to the states. However, the Ministry's statistical report on its website indicates a deficit of ₹6,146 crore. Despite attempts to seek clarification by sending questions to Rural Development Secretary Shailesh Kumar Singh, there has been no response.  Do Watch Our Other Episodes: 1) Editorial with Sujit Nair: 700+ students fall ill due to contaminated Mid-day meal- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt793...  2) Editorial with Sujit Nair: 50,000 MGNREGA workers to protest in Delhi ! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuaev...  #MGNREGA #NirmalaSitharaman #PMModi #SujitNair #Funds #BJP #Congress #HWNews #MGNREGS #RuralIndia #RuralDevelopment #CentralGovernment #G20 #Bharat #RishiSunak #JoeBiden

Transcript

00:00 Namaskar, welcome to another episode of Editorial.

00:03 Again, at the cost of not attracting too many viewers, at the cost of a topic that is not

00:12 trending, I am going to again talk about Mandrega. I am talking about Mandrega because I believe

00:19 it is one of the most important programs that is being run in rural India.

00:25 Now, the topic is that Mandrega has run out of funds. The Rural Development Ministry has

00:31 gone to the Finance Ministry asking for more funds, supplementary funds.

00:35 Why do we run short of funds in Mandrega? Why is Mandrega not funded? Don't we have

00:43 6000 crores that we can spare for Mandrega? Let's ask all these questions. Let's get right to the

00:50 show.

00:55 So, six months into the financial year, the flagship Rural Employment

00:58 Guarantee Scheme, that is Mandrega, that is Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

01:06 has run into trouble. They don't have money. They are short of 6146.93 crores.

01:15 They say we do not have money to pay wages. They have gone to the Ministry of Finance

01:23 asking for supplementary budget. Now, the Finance Ministry and Mrs. Nirmala Sitaraman

01:28 says that listen, you know what, Mandrega is a demand-driven scheme and the supplementary

01:34 budget will be made available whenever the need arises. She said that need arises,

01:40 supplementary budget will be made available because it's a demand-driven scheme.

01:43 Now, the thing is, what one is given to understand and what one understands from the source is that

01:52 the Rural Development has gone asking for supplementary budget but there is no word

01:57 from the Finance Ministry. What are we talking about? We are talking about 6146.93 crores.

02:06 Now, the budget amount that was allocated for Mandrega in 2023-24 is 60,000 crores,

02:16 which is 18% lower than the 73,000 crores budget estimated and 33% lower than the 89,000 crores

02:26 revised estimate for the financial year 2022-23. So, the budget allocation itself

02:32 starts from negative. It is lower than what it was estimated, what it was revised estimated.

02:42 Now, one wonders why is the government so hesitant when it comes to Mandrega. Mind you,

02:51 we are talking about 6146 crores and if one has to believe reports, we spent 4100 crores on G20.

02:58 I am saying this again and again is because, let me first try and tell you, before I get into why

03:04 the government I think is soft peddling on this issue and not so enthusiastic about Mandrega and

03:10 is hesitant to give Mandrega money, let me try and tell you why I am talking about Mandrega and

03:16 why I constantly talk about Mandrega to you. You see, we are not a nation, we are not a welfare

03:23 nation. We are not a nation that takes care of our unemployed or takes care of our disabled people

03:30 or takes care of, we are not that kind of nation. We don't have disabled allowance. We don't have

03:35 unemployment allowance. We don't take care of all that. The only thing we do is we have an

03:40 employment guarantee scheme which is Mandrega for rural employment especially where rural people,

03:47 farm workers, farmers, small farmers, farm workers can at least make enough money to eat.

03:55 I have said this in many of my editorials that some of the children, the only meal they have

04:04 is their midday meal in school and I have done a complete report on midday meals.

04:09 Please have a look at it. I am going to attach that in this editorial.

04:13 So, a lot of them eat rice and water. Now, these people depend on Mandrega and the wages that they

04:24 get from Mandrega to have their two square meals. It's not about luxury. It is about livelihood.

04:31 It is the effort to live and that is why I talk and I will continue to talk. Even if I have two

04:38 viewers, I will continue to talk about Mandrega. It is important. It is important and the reason

04:47 why I think, this is my personal view, the reason why I think that the government is hesitant

04:52 whenever it comes to Mandrega because I don't see enthusiasm in this government at least

04:58 to ensure that Mandrega wages are paid. One is the government says that the state government,

05:03 especially West Bengal and others, are, there is a lot of corruption when it comes to Mandrega.

05:08 The actual people do not receive the Mandrega funds. Now, I don't deny that. It could be true.

05:15 I do not deny that. But then isn't it the administrative's job? Isn't it the government's

05:22 job? Isn't it the central government and the state government and the administration and the CBI and

05:28 all of these people's job that the money which is meant for the poor reaches the poor? And if it

05:33 doesn't and somebody is pilfering it, isn't it the job of these central agencies which otherwise

05:38 are going behind politicians? Isn't it their job to come and check what is happening with

05:44 that pilferage and how is it getting pilfered? Isn't it their job? This is the question I asked

05:51 tonight. So, what are we blaming each other? Central blaming state, state blaming center.

05:56 If the money is getting pilfered, come together and ensure it doesn't get pilfered and goes to

06:01 the poor. So, this is the first thing that the government says. Now, let me tell you what I

06:08 think, like I told you. What I think. You see, there are certain things, there are certain

06:14 activities, there are certain decisions, there are certain policies which are optically very

06:18 beautiful, beautiful, optically beautiful and it's ideal to win elections and get votes. Ideal.

06:25 You know, gala event like the G20 where you have all the leaders coming in and hugging our

06:33 leader and our leader being the Vishwa Guru and all these things make a lot of us Indians feel

06:39 very good. Optically it is beautiful. It is beautiful and then the narrative of we being

06:45 the Vishwa Guru, we being the world's powerful country and all that we can make and all that

06:50 can be created, weaved around it. So, possibly our government is more bothered about those

06:57 activities. Chandrayaan is a fantastic venture. I am for it. But the point is, somewhere down the

07:05 line, we are impetus, our enthusiasm is for all those optical activities. You know, flagging of

07:14 a new train, Chandrayaan, G20. I am in no way saying that any of these are not important. All

07:21 of these are important. I am with it. And with all my heart I say that all of these things should

07:28 happen. But all I am saying is, with all this, Manreka should also be taken care of. Because our

07:35 people will have nothing to eat. And my problem is that if a farmer worker, a farm worker dies

07:43 without food or a child, a farmer's child starves, nobody comes to know about it. Nobody comes to

07:52 know about it. And if you are feeding them, nobody comes to know about it either. Nobody

07:57 comes to know about it either. We announce schemes. We announce schemes saying that we are

08:03 going to do this for farmers, we are going to do this for farm workers, we are going to do this for

08:06 the poor. But those schemes are just announcement. Like Manreka, it was announced. We are supposed to

08:12 pay them 100 days of guaranteed work. What happened? Paise hi nahi hai. What happens to the

08:21 scheme? What happens to the promise? This is point number two. Point number three, I feel,

08:27 I feel that this is purely politics. You see, what really happens for a farm worker, for a farmer,

08:38 for the poorest strata of the Indian society, the poorest strata of the Indian society who we are

08:44 talking about when it comes to Manreka, see, these people, they do not understand whether

08:49 the money is coming from centre or the money is coming from state. Whoever is more popular and

08:54 whoever is top of mind, if the state chief minister is top of mind in these people, they believe that

08:59 it is the state chief minister that is providing them with Manreka funds. If the prime minister is

09:04 top of mind for these people, they will believe that the prime minister is providing them for

09:08 the funds, their salaries. So, for them, a lot of them, top of mind is always the person they

09:15 feel obliged to, which is very sad because it is nobody's personal wealth that is being distributed,

09:21 it is the country's money. But fair enough, the people obliged to and possibly therefore vote for

09:26 and therefore support are people who are in top of mind. So, maybe the chances are that a lot of

09:34 people may not give credit to the centre for the money that the centre is giving the state for

09:39 Manreka. So, therefore, maybe the centre is not very interested. Maybe. I am not saying this is

09:45 what it is, but I am saying maybe. And I am forced to say all this is because I can't fathom why

09:51 such an important program is not funded. It is not well-oiled. It's not well-funded.

10:00 Why? It feeds our people. It doesn't pull them out of poverty, but at least it ensures that they live.

10:11 Why are we not doing it? And the fact remains that us, we, we are not even aware of this.

10:21 And most of us don't even care about this. Most of us don't even care about this.

10:28 Until such time that we are not aware of it, we don't talk about it and we don't care about it,

10:32 no government would want to give that money. How does it matter? Kisko samjhega?

10:36 Who is going to ask questions? Why should the government give that money?

10:41 So, my humble request to A, the government is please, this is the only welfare scheme that you

10:52 have for the poorest of poor in this country. Do not stop it. Do not put impediments to it.

10:59 Please let the money flow. 6000 crores for a country like ours is nothing, is nothing.

11:05 Please give that money. And for my viewers and people who are still listening to this,

11:12 which means that you bother, please talk about this. Please share this content. You please create

11:20 your own content. Write about this. Talk about this on your social media. Let people understand

11:25 that Mandreka is important. Mandreka is important for that child who goes to school only to eat his

11:31 midday meal for crying out loud. And that's the point I want to make. That's the family that

11:39 needs this money. Please let that money go to them. That's the point I wanted to make. Till

11:46 I see you next time, that's Monday at 10pm for my editorial and tomorrow at 9 for my opinion.

11:52 Namaskar.

11:54 [Music]

Editorial with Sujit Nair: MGNREGA Runs Out Of Funds | Nirmala Sitharaman | PM Modi | BJP Congress

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