Centre yet to pay Rs 78,110 lakh MGNREGA funds to 9 states

New Delhi: Despite the claims of the government of releasing MGNREGA funds to states on time, it has come to the fore that there is a pendency of about Rs 78,110 lakh that Centre has not yet released to nine states/UTs.

Among the nine states, the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal's funder transfer order (FTO) amounting to Rs 39,757 lakh is pending with the Centre. The West Bengal's pendency is highest among all the nine states, followed by Uttar Pradesh, which has a pendency of Rs 12,178 lakh and Punjab which is yet to receive Rs 6,386 lakh MGNREGA funds.

In reply to a question asked by BJP MP Arun Sao, who represents Bilaspur parliamentary constituency, Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told Lok Sabha that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is demand driven wage employment programme and wage payment is made on regular basis.

"Under direct benefit transfer (DBT) wage payment is made directly to the bank/post office account of the beneficiary by the central government through the NEFT after receiving the fund transfer order (FTO) from state Government through Public Fund Management System (PFMS)," he told the lower house.

As per the data provided by the Rural Development Ministry, as on September 11, apart from the three states, FTOs of Rs 5,923 lakh of Madhya Pradesh is pending with the Centre followed by Himachal Pradesh - Rs 4,673 lakh, Mizoram - Rs 4,150 lakh, Jharkhand- Rs 2,686 lakh, Andhra Pradesh - Rs 2,283 lakh and Puducherry - Rs 74 lakh.