Centre delaying money release under MGNREGA schemes: Minister

Kolkata: The Centre is delaying release of money for work done under projects under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in West Bengal in order to harm them, state Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee today alleged.

"The Centre is delaying the release of money for work done under many centrally-sponsored schemes. So we are unable to make payments to people who have worked. And, people who are not getting the payments will lose the zeal to work and eventually will not go for work," Mukherjee told reporters here.

In fact, in the last financial year, the Centre's "failure to release funds" for work had caused "huge problems" for the West Bengal government to continue work under the centrally-sponsored schemes, the Panchayat minister claimed.

"In the last financial year, after six months of work, the Centre had almost stopped releasing money for which we could not make payments and was forced to stop the work at peak time of the year," he said, adding, that around "Rs 1,900 crore was due from the Centre".

"The Centre paid us the due amount not in the last year and it was exhausted while paying the outstanding amounts. We are yet to get another Rs 450 crore," Mukherjee claimed.

Meanwhile, the state employment guarantee council has decided to revise payments for workers under the MGNREGA.

"There was no concept of any increment for workers under the MGNREGA. This is for the first time we have decided that all workers will get an yearly increment payment of three per cent. And those who have worked for more than six years will first get an increment of five per cent and then three per cent," Mukherjee said.