NEW DELHI: As MGNREGA completes ten years tomorrow, Narendra Modi govermment, which earlier appeared critical of the UPA 's flagship rural job scheme, today hailed the measure saying the achievements of a decade are a "cause of "national pride and celebration".In a statement, the government also claimed that the last financial year saw a "revival" of the programme and announced that the focus in upcoming years will be towards simplifying and strengthening the procedures of the scheme and towards building sustainable assets to benefit the poor.Some announcements are also expected tomorrow when Finance Minister Arun Jaitely delivers a key note address at MGNREGA SAMMELAN-2016 here."The personday generation is the highest in the second quarter (45.88 crore) and third quarter (46.10 crore) than it has been in the last five years," it said in a statement, adding that there will be a renewed focus on sustainable individual assets to benefit the poor and vulnerable households under the scheme in future.Marking the completion of ten years of UPA's flagship rural job guarantee scheme, which was announced by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi in February 2006, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will tomorrow visit Bandlapalli village of Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh from where the scheme had taken off.The UPA government had then described it as "a landmark in our history in removing poverty from the face of the nation".Narendra Modi-led NDA government, which was initially critical of the scheme, has continued with the progreamme even as the Prime Minister had last year dubbed it a "living monument" of Congress' "failure" to tackle poverty in last 60 years."Do you think, I will put an end to the scheme. My political wisdom does not allow me to do it. This is a living monument of your failure to tackle poverty in 60 years. With song and dance and drum beat, I will continue with the scheme," Modi had said during the Budget Session last year.In a statement, the Rural Development Ministry today said that the achievements of MGNREGA of a decade are a cause of national pride and celebration.It noted that since the start of the programme, the expenditure on the programme has amounted to over Rs 3,13,844. 55 crore of which 71 per cent has been spent on wage payments to workers."Of the workers, the percentage of Scheduled Caste workers has consistently been about 20 per cent and Scheduled Tribe workers has been about 17 per cent," it said adding that a total of over 1,980 crore persondays have been generated so far out of which the percentage worked by women has steadily increased much above the statutory minimum of 33 per cent."Sustainable assets have been created linked to conservation of natural resources and overall development of Gram Panchayats . More than 65 per cent of the works taken up under the programme are linked to agriculture and allied activities," it said.100 days of work is given to job-card holders under MGNREGA, which was designed as a safety net to reduce migration by rural poor by providing them with work and wages.A few months ago, the Centre decided to permit an additional 50 days of work in drought-hit areas under the MGNREGA scheme to provide relief to farmers in view of the monsoon deficit in various parts of the country.Rural Development Minister Birender Singh recently wrote to Jaitley to sanction "additional funds of Rs 5,000 crore for the scheme" fearing a "shortfall".Claiming that the 2015-16 financial year had seen a revival of the programme, the ministry today said that the person-day generation is the highest in the second quarter at 45.88 crore and in the third quarter at 46.10 crore in comparison to what it has been in the last five years."The national person-day generation to date at 146 crore is well above what this figure was at this time last year. 44 per cent of all wage payments are being made on time. More than 64 per cent of total expenditure is on agriculture and allied activities, the highest in three years."57 per cent of all workers are women, well above the statutory requirement of 33 per cent and the highest in three years. 23 per cent of all person-days are being done by SC workers, and 18 per cent by ST workers, the highest in three years," it said.With the second and third quarters of this financial year recording the generation of 36 and 8 per cent person days (PD) more than the corresponding period in the last fiscal, the ministry is expecting that 66 crore more PDs will be generated during the remaining part of the current financial year.Claiming that this "revival" has been achieved due to a slew of reforms undertaken by it, the Rural Development Ministry cited measures like ensuring timely release of funds to states.The statement said that a Master Circular is being issued today which consolidates all key instructions from the Centre on the implementation of the Act beyond which states have the flexibility to innovate."The convergent planning exercise currently underway in 2,569 backward blocks will be consolidated in the State Rural Development Plan (SRDP), which will be the basis of implementation and monitoring for the coming year," it said.The Union Minister had last month said wages under MGNREGA will be fixed in accordance with the prevailing agricultural wage rates in the states as per a recommendation to this effect made by a committee appointed by the Centre.The ministry had to submit a proposal for Rs 2,000 crore to finance ministry for tailoring wage rates under the scheme to match prevailing agricultural wage rates in the states.In the statement today, the ministry said that concurrent social audits and community monitoring will be undertaken.The Standing Committee on Rural Development, chaired by AIADMK MP P Venugopal, in its eighteenth report last year had pitched for strong monitoring for successful implementation of the scheme as it resented "slow progress on appointments of ombudsmen" to resolve disputes.