o   The central government shall determine the state-wise normative allocation for each financial year, based on objective parameters as may be prescribed by the central government. Section 4 (5) 

o   Save as otherwise provided, the state government shall in such rural areas in the state as may be notified by the Central Government, provide to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, not less than 125 days of guaranteed employment in a financial year in accordance with the scheme made under this Act. Section 5(1)

o   Any expenditure incurred by a state in excess of its normative allocation shall be borne by the state government in such manner and by such procedure as may be prescribed by the central government. Section 4(6)

o   For the purposes of this Act, the fund sharing pattern between the central government and the state government shall be… 60:40. This is apart from the North-Eastern States, Hill States & Union Territories where the central government share will be 90:10. Section 22(2) 

Among the Modi government’s many dubious talents is a knack for repackaging old schemes as new initiatives. That’s right: old wine in new (misshapen) bottles. Except this time the old wine is being thrown out as well and replaced with a toxic new brew.

The newest victim of this government’s ‘rejig–rename–reclaim’ enterprise is the historic UPA-era ‘MGNREGA’ (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), which came into force in 2005, when Manmohan Singh was India’s prime minister.

Why historic? Because MGNREGA gave independent India its first law employment in rural India and gave that guarantee the sanctity and legal force of a to demand work. That 20-year-old law, a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Indians ekeing out a precarious living in rural India, is set to be........

© National Herald