The Congress in Punjab on Saturday slammed the Centre government for scrapping the rights-based Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), saying it had snatched the legal right and guarantee of the poor and the marginalised people of the country.
State Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, along with AICC Department of Social Media and Digital Platforms Chairperson Supriya Shrinate, said here that it was a systematic attack on the poor, the Dalits, the tribals, the backwards and the women of the country.
Warring said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a deep aversion towards the MGNREGA from day one and would often refer to it scornfully. He particularly referred to increasing the state allocation from 10 to 40 per cent under the new law VB-G RAM G, which has replaced the MGNREGA.
He said the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab had already failed in implementing MGNREGA, even when it was supposed to provide just a 10 per cent matching grant. He asked, “How can it provide a 40 per cent matching grant?”
Referring to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s announcement of convening a special session of the Assembly on the issue, Warring hoped that he (the CM) would come up with some positive and constructive proposal as to how to counter the Central government.
Speaking on the issue, Supriya Shrinate described it as an attack by Prime Minister Modi on the marginalised sections of society who have been exploited for generations, like the Dalits, the tribals, the backwards and the women who, she said, got maximum work under the MGNREGA scheme.
She pointed out that it was the demand-based right where every person could demand 100 days’ work as a matter of right. She said MGNREGA had a provision that if the government could not provide work to the person, she or he would be compensated financially.
The senior Congress leader maintained that MGNREGA had transformed the rural economy, helped poverty alleviation in rural areas by reducing rural poverty by 26 per cent and improving rural employment.