Ludhiana.25th January : S.Parkash Singh Badal seem to be on different tangent and has rather mis-replied to Smt. Sonia Gandhi allegation on Akali BJP Government’s inability to use MNREGA funds of more than Rs.5000 crore in Samrala and Gurdaspur public rallies in Punjab . Mr.Badal replied to that in an public rally that as on today the Punjab government had received Rs.553 crore in last five years and have disbursed Rs.500 crore out of it to MNREGA card holders. He further replied that MNREGA is meant for BPL families.
S.Parkash Singh Badal is totally ill informed and misinformed about MNREGA and its operation .Punjab has about 8.5lac household are card holders and as on today only 865 households have completed 100 days of work , which speaks volumes about the poor implementation of MNREGA in Punjab. MNREGA is a demand based scheme where there is no cap on allocation of funds. The better the scheme is implemented the more the funds are allocated to the state. Mrs.Sonia Gandhi was absolutely right when she alleged that Punjab government could have got more than Rs.5000 crore under MNREGA alone in five years but could get just 10 percent of stipulated amount. Non implementation of MNREGA and allegations of siphoning of MNREGA funds by Punjab Government have been surfacing in media regularly and which will now be looked into once the Congress government in place in Punjab. Poor rural people of Punjab have missed an opportunity to augment their income due to very poor implementation MNERGA in Punjab.
Also Mr.Badal is also incorrect to state that this scheme is meant for BPL families . MNREGA does not discriminate between BPL and non BPL families. All able bodied persons capable to work can work under MNREGA.
Punjab Pardesh Congress’s manifesto has laid clear and ample emphasis on the proper implementation of MNREGA and other flagship programmes of the central government. Congress sees MNERGA as vehicle to create rural employment and a mean to augment income of rural households.