Budget 2015: After Prime Minister's MNREGA Swipe, the Scheme Gets Record Allocation
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assessed the MNREGA rural employment scheme as "living proof of the Congress party's failure", the welfare reform has been boosted by a whopping Rs 5,000 crore. The announcement was made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the government's annual budget to Parliament. The additional funding makes this the largest-ever allocation for the scheme that was hailed as a landmark reform by the Congress-led government that was wiped out in last year's national election by the Prime Minister and the BJP.
Yesterday, in Parliament, the PM pledged, "I will ensure MNREGA is never discontinued. It is proof of the Congress' failure. After so many years of being in power, all you were able to deliver is for a poor man to dig ditches a few days a month."
Mr Modi said he will ensure that the scheme is fortified but said it will remind voters of how the party that has governed the country the longest failed them. "You will give me credit for this at least - that I have some rajnaitik sudhbudh (political acumen). This is why MNREGA will stay," the premier said in Parliament, provoking laughter and applause from his party's lawmakers.
Sonia Gandhi, the Congress President, looked on stoically.
MNREGA or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act promises unskilled manual work to every adult for at least 100 days in rural parts of the country. It was introduced in 2005.
"MNREGA was not a failure, a lot of people benefited from it," said senior Congress leader Rajiv Shukla after the PM's speech in Parliament.