00:00 Namaskar, welcome to another episode of Editorial.
00:03 Again, at the cost of not attracting too many viewers, at the cost of a topic that is not
00:12 trending, I am going to again talk about Mandrega. I am talking about Mandrega because I believe
00:19 it is one of the most important programs that is being run in rural India.
00:25 Now, the topic is that Mandrega has run out of funds. The Rural Development Ministry has
00:31 gone to the Finance Ministry asking for more funds, supplementary funds.
00:35 Why do we run short of funds in Mandrega? Why is Mandrega not funded? Don't we have
00:43 6000 crores that we can spare for Mandrega? Let's ask all these questions. Let's get right to the
00:50 show.
00:55 So, six months into the financial year, the flagship Rural Employment
00:58 Guarantee Scheme, that is Mandrega, that is Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
01:06 has run into trouble. They don't have money. They are short of 6146.93 crores.
01:15 They say we do not have money to pay wages. They have gone to the Ministry of Finance
01:23 asking for supplementary budget. Now, the Finance Ministry and Mrs. Nirmala Sitaraman
01:28 says that listen, you know what, Mandrega is a demand-driven scheme and the supplementary
01:34 budget will be made available whenever the need arises. She said that need arises,
01:40 supplementary budget will be made available because it's a demand-driven scheme.
01:43 Now, the thing is, what one is given to understand and what one understands from the source is that
01:52 the Rural Development has gone asking for supplementary budget but there is no word
01:57 from the Finance Ministry. What are we talking about? We are talking about 6146.93 crores.
02:06 Now, the budget amount that was allocated for Mandrega in 2023-24 is 60,000 crores,
02:16 which is 18% lower than the 73,000 crores budget estimated and 33% lower than the 89,000 crores
02:26 revised estimate for the financial year 2022-23. So, the budget allocation itself
02:32 starts from negative. It is lower than what it was estimated, what it was revised estimated.
02:42 Now, one wonders why is the government so hesitant when it comes to Mandrega. Mind you,
02:51 we are talking about 6146 crores and if one has to believe reports, we spent 4100 crores on G20.
02:58 I am saying this again and again is because, let me first try and tell you, before I get into why
03:04 the government I think is soft peddling on this issue and not so enthusiastic about Mandrega and
03:10 is hesitant to give Mandrega money, let me try and tell you why I am talking about Mandrega and
03:16 why I constantly talk about Mandrega to you. You see, we are not a nation, we are not a welfare
03:23 nation. We are not a nation that takes care of our unemployed or takes care of our disabled people
03:30 or takes care of, we are not that kind of nation. We don't have disabled allowance. We don't have
03:35 unemployment allowance. We don't take care of all that. The only thing we do is we have an
03:40 employment guarantee scheme which is Mandrega for rural employment especially where rural people,
03:47 farm workers, farmers, small farmers, farm workers can at least make enough money to eat.
03:55 I have said this in many of my editorials that some of the children, the only meal they have
04:04 is their midday meal in school and I have done a complete report on midday meals.
04:09 Please have a look at it. I am going to attach that in this editorial.
04:13 So, a lot of them eat rice and water. Now, these people depend on Mandrega and the wages that they
04:24 get from Mandrega to have their two square meals. It's not about luxury. It is about livelihood.
04:31 It is the effort to live and that is why I talk and I will continue to talk. Even if I have two
04:38 viewers, I will continue to talk about Mandrega. It is important. It is important and the reason
04:47 why I think, this is my personal view, the reason why I think that the government is hesitant
04:52 whenever it comes to Mandrega because I don't see enthusiasm in this government at least
04:58 to ensure that Mandrega wages are paid. One is the government says that the state government,
05:03 especially West Bengal and others, are, there is a lot of corruption when it comes to Mandrega.
05:08 The actual people do not receive the Mandrega funds. Now, I don't deny that. It could be true.
05:15 I do not deny that. But then isn't it the administrative's job? Isn't it the government's
05:22 job? Isn't it the central government and the state government and the administration and the CBI and
05:28 all of these people's job that the money which is meant for the poor reaches the poor? And if it
05:33 doesn't and somebody is pilfering it, isn't it the job of these central agencies which otherwise
05:38 are going behind politicians? Isn't it their job to come and check what is happening with
05:44 that pilferage and how is it getting pilfered? Isn't it their job? This is the question I asked
05:51 tonight. So, what are we blaming each other? Central blaming state, state blaming center.
05:56 If the money is getting pilfered, come together and ensure it doesn't get pilfered and goes to
06:01 the poor. So, this is the first thing that the government says. Now, let me tell you what I
06:08 think, like I told you. What I think. You see, there are certain things, there are certain
06:14 activities, there are certain decisions, there are certain policies which are optically very
06:18 beautiful, beautiful, optically beautiful and it's ideal to win elections and get votes. Ideal.
06:25 You know, gala event like the G20 where you have all the leaders coming in and hugging our
06:33 leader and our leader being the Vishwa Guru and all these things make a lot of us Indians feel
06:39 very good. Optically it is beautiful. It is beautiful and then the narrative of we being
06:45 the Vishwa Guru, we being the world's powerful country and all that we can make and all that
06:50 can be created, weaved around it. So, possibly our government is more bothered about those
06:57 activities. Chandrayaan is a fantastic venture. I am for it. But the point is, somewhere down the
07:05 line, we are impetus, our enthusiasm is for all those optical activities. You know, flagging of
07:14 a new train, Chandrayaan, G20. I am in no way saying that any of these are not important. All
07:21 of these are important. I am with it. And with all my heart I say that all of these things should
07:28 happen. But all I am saying is, with all this, Manreka should also be taken care of. Because our
07:35 people will have nothing to eat. And my problem is that if a farmer worker, a farm worker dies
07:43 without food or a child, a farmer's child starves, nobody comes to know about it. Nobody comes to
07:52 know about it. And if you are feeding them, nobody comes to know about it either. Nobody
07:57 comes to know about it either. We announce schemes. We announce schemes saying that we are
08:03 going to do this for farmers, we are going to do this for farm workers, we are going to do this for
08:06 the poor. But those schemes are just announcement. Like Manreka, it was announced. We are supposed to
08:12 pay them 100 days of guaranteed work. What happened? Paise hi nahi hai. What happens to the
08:21 scheme? What happens to the promise? This is point number two. Point number three, I feel,
08:27 I feel that this is purely politics. You see, what really happens for a farm worker, for a farmer,
08:38 for the poorest strata of the Indian society, the poorest strata of the Indian society who we are
08:44 talking about when it comes to Manreka, see, these people, they do not understand whether
08:49 the money is coming from centre or the money is coming from state. Whoever is more popular and
08:54 whoever is top of mind, if the state chief minister is top of mind in these people, they believe that
08:59 it is the state chief minister that is providing them with Manreka funds. If the prime minister is
09:04 top of mind for these people, they will believe that the prime minister is providing them for
09:08 the funds, their salaries. So, for them, a lot of them, top of mind is always the person they
09:15 feel obliged to, which is very sad because it is nobody's personal wealth that is being distributed,
09:21 it is the country's money. But fair enough, the people obliged to and possibly therefore vote for
09:26 and therefore support are people who are in top of mind. So, maybe the chances are that a lot of
09:34 people may not give credit to the centre for the money that the centre is giving the state for
09:39 Manreka. So, therefore, maybe the centre is not very interested. Maybe. I am not saying this is
09:45 what it is, but I am saying maybe. And I am forced to say all this is because I can't fathom why
09:51 such an important program is not funded. It is not well-oiled. It's not well-funded.
10:00 Why? It feeds our people. It doesn't pull them out of poverty, but at least it ensures that they live.
10:11 Why are we not doing it? And the fact remains that us, we, we are not even aware of this.
10:21 And most of us don't even care about this. Most of us don't even care about this.
10:28 Until such time that we are not aware of it, we don't talk about it and we don't care about it,
10:32 no government would want to give that money. How does it matter? Kisko samjhega?
10:36 Who is going to ask questions? Why should the government give that money?
10:41 So, my humble request to A, the government is please, this is the only welfare scheme that you
10:52 have for the poorest of poor in this country. Do not stop it. Do not put impediments to it.
10:59 Please let the money flow. 6000 crores for a country like ours is nothing, is nothing.
11:05 Please give that money. And for my viewers and people who are still listening to this,
11:12 which means that you bother, please talk about this. Please share this content. You please create
11:20 your own content. Write about this. Talk about this on your social media. Let people understand
11:25 that Mandreka is important. Mandreka is important for that child who goes to school only to eat his
11:31 midday meal for crying out loud. And that's the point I want to make. That's the family that
11:39 needs this money. Please let that money go to them. That's the point I wanted to make. Till
11:46 I see you next time, that's Monday at 10pm for my editorial and tomorrow at 9 for my opinion.
11:52 Namaskar.
11:54 [Music]
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