State has over ₹179 crore pending liabilities
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, February 04 2025: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has received its highest-ever budget allocation of Rs 86,000 crore for the financial year 2024-25 at the Budget Estimate (BE) stage.

Meanwhile, Manipur faces significant pending liabilities under the scheme, with Rs 48 crore pending owed in wage payments and Rs 131.51 crore in material components as of January 2025 .

According to information shared by minister of state for rural development Kamlesh Paswan, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, under MGNREGS, beneficiaries are entitled to receive wages within 15 days of the closure of muster rolls.

The central government has issued a detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure timely wage payments and has advised states and union territories to generate pay orders without delay.

Efforts to improve wage disbursement include up-scaling the National Electronic Fund Management System (Ne-FMS), consultations with state governments, and monitoring mechanisms such as Annual Action Plan meetings, mid-term reviews, and monthly assessments.

These measures have helped streamline the generation of Fund Transfer Orders (FTOs) within the stipulated 15-day period.

Apart from financial liabilities, Manipur has also seen a significant number of job card deletions under MGNREGS.

In the financial year 2022-23, a total of 16,740 active workers were removed from the scheme, while in 2023-24, the number of deletions rose to 33,268 .

Job cards are deleted for reasons such as fake or duplicate entries, incorrect details, permanent migration of families, and the reclassification of villages as urban areas.

The ministry has directed states and UTs to ensure that only ineligible job cards are removed and that no deserving household is denied employment under the scheme.

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