In the Budget for 2007/08, the scheme was expanded from 200 districts to 330, and the allocation was increased to Rs. 12,000 crore, plus another Rs. 2,800 crore for (SGRY) for rural employment in districts not covered by NREGS.

In this new Budget, Chidambram proclaims, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ‘has proved a historic measure of empowerment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and, especially, women’; that the allocation for it will be raised to Rs. 16,000 crore, and that it will be rolled out to all 596 rural districts of India.

In a note that he has sent to all the Highups, NC Saxena punctures the balloon. First, he points out, since this Government took office, the allocation for rural employment has actually fallen! While Chidambram has been parading financial outlays, he has forgotten to mention what has been happening to that other component of outlays on this programme, the food component: this, Saxena shows, was sixty eight lakh tonnes in 2005/06; it fell to twenty four lakh tonnes in 2006/07; and this year, it was just a little more than seven lakh tonnes till Novemebr, 2007, and may not reach even fifteen lakh tonnes by end-March 2008. Converting these figures into cash, Saxena points out, the outlay by the central Government on wage employment schemes has come down from Rs. 18,406 crore in 2005/06 to Rs. 15,000 crore.

The second point he makes is almost cruel! Recall the other part of the announcement: the programme will be extended to all 596 rural districts of India. But one-fourth of the districts are short of labour, Saxena points out! ‘Reckless expansion will only promote migration and fudging of documents,’ he writes.

... contd.