Shivraj Singh Chouhan slams Congress for ‘spreading lies’ on MNREGA
Chouhan said MGNREGA had seen effective implementation and an increase in budget allocation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
NEW DELHI: Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday accused the Congress of misleading Parliament on the implementation of the rural jobs guarantee scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or MGNREGA, stating that the Modi government had ensured direct payments to beneficiaries and brought efficiency to the welfare programme.
In a series of posts on X, the minister said the scheme had seen effective implementation and an increase in budget allocation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“In the financial year 2006-07, the budget allocation was ₹11,300 crore, which increased to ₹33,000 crore in 2013-14, and it has been continuously increasing over the past 10 years. The allocation for the current financial year of ₹86,000 crore is the highest ever in the budget estimate stage,” Chouhan said in one of the posts.
Chouhan stated that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government spent a record ₹1,11,000 crore under the scheme in 2020-21 to “ensure livelihood security” for those facing hardship. “This reflects the government’s commitment to the effective implementation of the scheme,” he said.
On Tuesday, Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi told the Rajya Sabha that the central government “systematically undermined” the rural employment guarantee scheme, and demanded a hike in minimum wage to ₹400 per day and an increase in the number of guaranteed workdays from 100 to 150 a year.
Criticising Congress leaders for misinforming Parliament, Chouhan said in another post: “The Congress’s lies have now reached from the streets to the House. For Congress, lies have become the oxygen. Even in the sacred temple of democracy, they do not hesitate to make misleading statements with half-truths.”
Between the financial years 2006-07 and 2013-14, a total of 1,660 crore person-days were created while implementing MNREGA, whereas between 2014-15 to 2024-25, 3,029 crore person-days have been created, which is 82% higher than the previous decade, Chouhan said.
