New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) The government on Friday increased the budgetary allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) by Rs 5,000 crore year-on-year to Rs 60,000 crore in the interim Budget for 2019-20, which is highest-ever allocation to the programme since its launch in 2006.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has criticised the scheme repeatedly. He even called it "living monument of the UPA's failures" in Parliament in 2015.

The flagship job guarantee programme MGNREGS was allocated Rs 55,000 crore for 2018-19 and it received an additional allocation of over Rs 6,084 crore earlier this month in the revised estimates, taking the total allocation to Rs 61,084 crore.

The Modi government had earmarked Rs 55,1666 crore and Rs 48,214 crore in 2017-18 and 2016-17 respectively.

--IANS spk/prs