More than five crore job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) were cancelled in 2022-23, 247 per cent more than the number of deletions in 2021-22, according to a written reply Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
In 2021-22, MGNREGA job cards of 1,49,51,247 workers were deleted while in 2022-23 the number was 5,18,91,168. West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were among the states with the highest number of deletions.
Singh said the deletions were made due to “fake” job cards, duplicate job cards, people not willing to work anymore, family shifted from Gram Panchayat permanently, or deaths.
In 2022-23, 57.43 per cent of MGNREGA workers were women.
MGNREGA, a flagship scheme introduced by the UPA government, guaranteed 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household.
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