On the ninth anniversary of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Government and civil society organisations locked horns over the scheme’s “alleged” dilution.

At a press meet, activists complained of a “systematic effort” on the Finance Ministry’s part to “finish” the scheme step by step. They alleged that the Centre, citing that demand for jobs has decreased, is curtailing funds for the Act.

“In 2009-10 the allocation for the scheme was 0.8 per cent of GDP. Now, it’s just 0.22 per cent,” said activist Nikhil Dey. He said 75 per cent of the people involved in the work are not being paid and added that wages are pending for months.

Economist Jayati Ghosh said: “When you do not get wages for months, demand dries up. Then the Government claims that there is no demand.” He added that this was designed to “shrink” the scheme.

Former Solicitor General Indira Jaising said the way the Centre was handling MGNREGA could be questioned in the courts. She said there are efforts not to register demands by workers for jobs.

“The MGNREGA is a law passed by Parliament and a government that is unable to dilute the law in Parliament cannot use administrative subterfuge and fund squeezes to undermine entitlements provided by law,” she added.

Sanjay Sani, a MGNREGA worker from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, said the spending cuts amount to a human rights violation by the state as poor workers are neither getting work nor wages for work already done. He said people in his area marked a ‘kaali diwali’ (Black Diwali) to highlight the distress they were facing due to non-payment of wages and dilution of the Act.

Meanwhile, the Centre said it is making efforts to strengthen the scheme. Rural Development Minister Birender Singh said the Government has decided to intensify MGNREGA’s ongoing convergence with other schemes to create durable and useful assets.

At a function, Singh said the Centre has introduced a new module to capture planning and implementation of convergence initiatives.

“Twenty-one States have prepared their convergence plans already. Convergence has been closely linked to measuring outcomes of works and their impact on the rural economy,” he added.