India's biggest pride, now its biggest shame, the NREGS

Guarantee' and 'employment' - the very two words that brought sheen to NREGS for many years - have become the biggest challenge to one of the most ambitious pro-poor schemes in the world, making it jaded, unreliable and almost futile in many places.

Even as UPA's pet scheme enters the 10th year, and with finance minister Arun Jaitley making it clear in the Budget that the NDA regime will nurse the scheme, ground reports from across the country show NREGS is facing a plethora of problems reported The Economic Times. Primary among these is a sharp cut in central funds to most states, which in turn has led to a steep fall in the number of projects, migration of workers due to pending wage bills and families being deprived of the mandatory 100 mandays every year.

The central fund allocation is slashed by up to 45% in some states. Some states are yet to receive the final instalment of this truncated allocation, forcing them to hold back wage bills. West Bengal panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said he has been repeatedly urging the Centre to clear Rs 1,000-crore NREGS dues to his state. "This is plaguing the work already undertaken," he told ET.

Nepal Singha, sabhapati of Salboni panchayat samiti in Bengal's West Midnapore, said that 10 gram panchayats under his samiti owed Rs 2.46 crore to 15,000 workers. "The delay in payment is triggering dissent among workers. They are refusing to take up fresh projects unless their dues are cleared. This has severely affected works like building roads, ponds and dams and making arid land cultivable," he told ET. Singha is not alone. Hundreds of samitis across the country face the same problem.

Late payments and slashed budget have derailed many projects in Tamil Nadu, which has been rated as the best performing state. "Villagers are not ready to work because of delayed wages. If the delay continues, there will be a problem getting workers under NREGS," said an official, adding there was a shortfall of Rs 1,700 crore in the last quarter of 2014-15.

Sources told ET in the Karnataka government pointed out that the peak working season for NREGS schemes starts from NovemberDecember. "Lack of funds will have a debilitating impact on these schemes as we can't keep up the momentum and meet the needs of the wage seekers," the sources said, adding the Centre was yet to clear Rs 141.5 crore wage bills.

Assam CM Tarun Gogoi also echoed the views that the cut in funds came at a time when NREGS were making substantial progress.