New Delhi: Amid speculation that the government might dilute the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, as many as 28 economists including Jean Dreze and Abhijit Sen has written an open letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him not to tinker with the provisions of the Act.
Former Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh also opposed any move of the government to dilute the provisions of the scheme.
The economists — Dilip Abreu (Princeton University), Pranab Bardhan (University of California Berkeley), V. Bhaskar (University of Texas at Austin), Jean Dreze (visiting professor, Ranchi University), Abhijit Sen (former member, Planning Commission) and Dilip Mookherjee (Boston University) — in the open letter claimed that the MGNREGA has ensured economic security to millions of poor in the country.
They also claimed that any attempt to dilute the provisions of MNREGA will have a “far reaching” impact on the economic security of millions of people.
