NEW DELHI: Putting to rest the apprehensions that the new Narendra Modi-led NDA government is diluting the provisions of the national employment guarantee scheme rural development minister Chaudhary Birender Singh on Thursday said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee MGNREGA ) would continue to be implemented across the country and his government would ensure that the wage to material ratio of 60:40 is maintained at the gram panchayat level.“We will ensure that there is no change in the wage material ratio at the gram panchayat level and the material component does not exceed 40%,” Singh said while responding to the attention motion moved by D Raja (CPI) in Rajya Sabha. Responding to the comments of former rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, Singh said that MGNREGA would continue to run across the country.“The government is paying extensive intention on the implementation of the scheme in the 2,500 identified blocks, which are poorest of the poor. But that does not mean that the scheme is not being implemented in the remaining blocks. There is absolutely no ambiguity that the scheme will continue even in these 4,000 blocks as well,” Singh said.The issue popped up when rural development minister Nitin Gadkari recently announced that his government will increase the proportion of material component in the scheme to up to 49% to enable creation of large durable assets like check dams etc.Under the UPA regime, the wage and material component under the scheme stood at 60:40 and there are apprehensions that with the material component going up and the overall allocation to the scheme remains the same, there will be substantial reduction in funds available as wages, thus diluting the scheme. The annual allocation under MGNREGA is Rs 34,000 crore.Besides, Gadkari has also said that his government is thinking of limiting the scheme to poor districts only, which experts feel is against the spirit of the scheme that was rolled out in 2005 after all-party consent.Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) enacted in 2005 aims to provide 100 days of work to unskilled poor people living in rural areas. On an average, around 5 crore households, which is close to 29% of the total rural households, are provided employment under the scheme every year.Around 54% of MGNREGA workers are women and close to 40% are schedule caste and schedule tribes and around Rs 1,80,000 crore have been paid as wages to the workers in the last eight years.