Centre clears Rs 2,999 cr MGNREGS funds due to TN govt
According to a senior official in the State government, a grant-in-aid of Rs 2,999.53 crore has been approved for Tamil Nadu under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) towards wage payments for the current fiscal year.
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CHENNAI: After a prolonged tug of war with the Union government over pending dues under the MGNREGS, the Tamil Nadu government is set to receive a grant-in-aid of nearly Rs 3,000 crore towards wage payments. This forms part of the first instalment of the initial tranche of central assistance to the State for the 2025–2026 fiscal year.
According to a senior official in the State government, a grant-in-aid of Rs 2,999.53 crore has been approved for Tamil Nadu under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) towards wage payments for the current fiscal year. This includes a pending wage liability of Rs 2,853 crore. The amount is against the total dues of around Rs 4,000 crore towards wages of workers in the State, which currently has 91.67 lakh active workers.
Of the sanctioned amount,
Rs 779 crore and Rs 46.13 crore have been allocated towards the wages of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) workers respectively, while Rs 2,174 crore has been earmarked for other workers registered under the scheme, said Sany Kumar, Director, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, in an official communication.
The amount will be released in instalments on a daily basis, based on Fund Transfer Orders (FTOs) generated by the State, as per actual expenditure recorded and as captured by MGNREGS Soft and the Public Finance Management System, the communication further noted.
The Union authorities have also instructed the Tamil Nadu government to strictly adhere to the directives and advisories issued by the Union Ministry of Rural Development between October 2023 and March 2024. The Centre further cautioned that action would be taken against officials in the event of non-compliance with the scheme’s guidelines or if any irregularities are found.
It may be recalled that the Union Government has approved only 12 crore person days for TN under MGNREGS for the 2025–2026 financial year, significantly lower than the 35 crore proposed by the State.
