AMN /
The Supreme Court has asked all states to inform the Centre about the money spent by them in the current financial year so far in implementing the national rural employment guarantee scheme
MGNREGA. A bench of Justices M B Lokur and R K Agrawal Friday also asked the states to apprise the Centre about their further financial needs to continue with the social welfare scheme.
It also asked them to elaborate the current status of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. It asked the states to inform the concerned ministry whether they were following the Centre’s direction to provide minimum 150 days of employment under the scheme. The bench further gave the states three weeks time to respond on the matter. The bench also asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to see whether the state governments were also complying with the provisions of the National Food Security Act and the Drought Manual or not.
The court’s direction came on a PIL, which alleged that the scheme has not been implemented in majority of the states, especially in drought-affected areas. The PIL said, parts of states like Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh among others have been hit by drought and the concerned authorities were not providing adequate relief.