New Delhi, Mar 25 (PTI) Tamil Nadu has been given more funds than Uttar Pradesh under MGNREGA in one fiscal although its population is seven crore as against the northern state's 20 crore, Union Minister Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday, inviting strong protests from DMK MPs.

The Union minister of state for rural development said the Central government has never discriminated against any state in the release of funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) that guarantees 100 days of employment to eligible rural households.

Pemmasani also said during Question Hour that there were several instances of alleged misappropriation of funds provided to West Bengal under MGNREGA.

Replying to a question about the scheme's implementation in West Bengal, he said "multiple things went wrong" in the state.

First, there were "misappropriation" of funds and there were instances when works were split and given to contractors on a nominated basis, he said.

"We sent an audit (team). They found 44 works where there were irregularities. They made full recovery in 34 cases. Still, 10 other works need to be completed. The financial misappropriation was to the tune of Rs 5.37 crore. Out of this, they have recovered Rs 2.39 crore. Some of the things still need to be taken care of," the minister said.

Pemmasani said as soon as these things are taken care of, the Union rural development minister (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) will sit with the state minister and resolve the issues.

When DMK MP Kanimozhi said that Tamil Nadu had been waiting the release of Rs 4,034 crore under MGNREGA for the past five months, the minister said the scheme is demand-driven, and if payments are delayed by over 15 days, they must be paid with interest to workers.

Pemmasani pointed out that the MGNREGA was enacted by the previous UPA government and stipulates that delays beyond 15 days incur a penalty of 0.05 per cent as interest.

"According to the law, if there is a delay, the state government initially pays the amount and the central government reimburses it. Tamil Nadu has already received Rs 7,300 crore (this fiscal).

"Earlier also, with a population of seven crore, Tamil Nadu received over Rs 10,000 crore in comparison to Uttar Pradesh, which has a population of 20 crore and got close to Rs 10,000 crore. There is no question of bias," he said, evoking strong protests from the DMK members.

Pemmasani's senior minister Chouhan also defended the government, saying, "Be it Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, the Modi government has never discriminated against any state. The pending MGNREGA dues, including material costs, will be released soon.

"Under UPA, from 2006-07 to 2013-14, only Rs 111 crore was allocated for person-days in West Bengal, while under the NDA, we have created 239 crore person-days and allocated Rs 54,515 crore," he said.

Upset with the minister's reply, DMK and Trinamool Congress MPs entered the well of the House, staging strong protests. Members belonging to Congress and Samajwadi Party joined the protests too, rising from their seats in solidarity with some of them standing near the Well.

Speaker Om Birla urged them to return to their seats, but they did not budge. Following this, the House was adjourned for about 15 minutes till 12 pm.

Birla urged the Opposition not to "politicise" the questions raised during the Question Hour.

Congress MP from Kerala Adoor Prakash also highlighted a decline in the MGNREGA workforce in his state and attributed it to delayed payments and low wages.

"Workers in Kerala have not received their wages for the past three months, and Rs 811 crore is due under the scheme. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development has recommended linking MGNREGA wages to inflation and increasing the workdays to 150. Will the government release the pending amount without delay?" Prakash posed.

Pemmasani refuted the claims of withholding funds, stating that Kerala has already received nearly Rs 3,000 crore this year.

"Last year, Kerala got Rs 3,500 crore. The release of payments is a continuous process, and whatever is pending will be cleared within the next few weeks," he assured the House.

Pemmasani said before 2013-14, there was no mechanism for fixing the wages but later wages were as per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for agricultural labourers. "If you see to last four to five years, cumulatively, we have increased the wages by 43 per cent," he said.

The minister said that under MGNREAG, the highest wage of Rs 374 is given in Haryana. In Kerala and Karnataka, close to Rs 350 is given while the lowest rate is in some of the northeastern states where Rs 234 is given.

He also gave statistics on the amount released by the Central government under the scheme.

In 2020, during the Covid pandemic, Rs 61,000 crore was the budget estimate and eventually the Central government released Rs 50,000 crore more, taking the total to Rs 1,10,000 crore, he said.

"If you look at the last two years, the budget estimate was Rs 73,000 crore, but we have released close to Rs 98,000 crore. So, there is no question of not releasing the money and not increasing the amount," the minister added. PTI PK UZM ACB ACB NSD NSD