KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has written to the Centre, seeking approval for 8 crore more mandays under the MGNREGA scheme in the 2021-22 fiscal. State Panchayat Minister Pulok Roy said the communication was sent after West Bengal achieved its approved labour budget of 27 crore mandays for the current fiscal.
"Twenty-seven crore mandays are quite insufficient for the state. It requires at least 35 crore mandays, and therefore, we have written to the central government, seeking approval for eight crore more mandays," Roy said.
The state government is yet to get a response from the Union government in this regard, a senior official said. The BJP-led government at the Centre had earlier approved an additional 5 crore mandays for Bengal in the ongoing fiscal.
The central government has granted an estimated budget of Rs 73,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme for 2022-23. In 2021-22, the revised estimate for the scheme was Rs 98,000 crore.