The Opposition on Tuesday protested and forced a brief adjournment of the Lok Sabha proceedings over long delays in the release of funds to some states under the rural employment guarantee scheme, stressing that the livelihood of the poor have been hit badly.

The Opposition MPs raised slogans in the Well of the House even as the government claimed there was no discrimination against any state in the release of funds and assured them that the dues would be cleared soon.

Speaker Om Birla urged the MPs not to raise “politically motivated” issues to disturb Question Hour as he adjourned the House for 15 minutes till noon.

MPs from the Trinamool Congress, Congress and the DMK from Kerala, Bengal and Tamil Nadu raised the issue during Question Hour. Trinamool MP Bapi Haldar said no funds had been released to Bengal under 100-day job scheme MGNREGA for the last three years and asked when the dues would be cleared.

“The continued suspension of funds has resulted in severe consequences, adversely impacting the livelihood of lakhs of rural people,” Haldar told the House.

In his reply, junior rural development minister Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani alleged “misappropriation” of funds and other irregularities in the implementation of
the scheme.

“We sent out an audit team and there were a total of 44 works that were found to be irregular. They have made full recovery in 34 works and still 10 other works need to be done. The financial misappropriation was estimated to be ₹5.37 crore,” the minister said, pointing out that the dues would be cleared once the issue gets resolved.
Haldar found Pemmasani’s reply unsatisfactory.

The Centre and the Bengal government have been locked in a tussle over the suspension of funds under the MGNREGA and other centrally sponsored schemes.

Congress MP from Kerala, Adoor Prakash, said workers had not received wages for the past three months and the delayed payment and low wages had led to a sharp decline in the MGNREGA workforce in the state.

“Around 1.86 lakh workers opted out of the scheme in the past year. Delayed payment and low wages are the main reasons for distress among the workers,” Prakash told the House, claiming ₹811 crore was due to Kerala under the scheme and asked when the Centre would release the dues.

“Last year, Kerala got ₹3,500 crore. The release of payments is a continuous process and whatever is pending will be cleared within the next few weeks,” Pemmasani said.

DMK MP Kanimozhi claimed that funds to Tamil Nadu amounting to ₹4,034 crore had been pending for the last five months. She said that since the scheme was demand-driven, the workers should be paid interest if payment of wages is delayed by over 15 days.

Pemmasani reasoned that Tamil Nadu draws more funds under the NREGA than Uttar Pradesh despite its much lower population, angering the Opposition.

“Tamil Nadu has already received ₹7,300 crore. Tamil Nadu has a population of 7 crore whereas Uttar Pradesh has a population of 20 crore. But Uttar Pradesh draws close to ₹10,000 crore whereas Tamil Nadu draws more than ₹10,000 crore,” Pemmasani said.

Amid protests, cabinet minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan rose to assure the Opposition that the funds would be released soon.