<span style="color: #222222;">Responding to news items that employment generated for first 17 days of December under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is the lowest ever, Ministry of Rural Development has clarified that this is a demand-driven scheme and such comparison is not as per the spirit of the act.<br />'' <br />'' The ministry added that the Scheme allows 7 days window for the entry of data. It said that a comparison based on the data for the first 17 days takes into account the person-days that have been generated during a minor fraction of December.<br />'' <br />'' The ministry said that during November 2019, 16 crore 92 lakh person days were generated. In November last year over 23 crore person days got generated and in November this year, more than 22 crore person days got generated.<br />''<br />''The ministry added that Centre is committed to release funds for wageand material payments for proper implementation of the scheme.</span>