Congress To Launch Nationwide Stir To Protect MGNREGA
Speaking at the Congress Working Committee meeting, Kharge said that the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls was a "well-planned conspiracy" to limit democratic rights
New Delhi: The Congress will launch a nationwide mass movement to save the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) from January 5. The decision to launch "MGNREGA Bachao Abhiyan" was taken at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) held in the national capital on Saturday.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the CWC had unanimously vowed to save and protect the MGNREGA at all costs. The CWC also took an oath, asserting that UPA-era legislation was not merely a government scheme but the embodiment of the right to work envisioned by the Constitution of India itself.
Addressing a press conference after the CWC meeting, Mr Kharge called the new rural jobs law (Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin) a “one-sided decision” taken without consultation. He claimed it will place an additional financial burden on states, as the scheme is now to be funded jointly by the Centre and states in a 60:40 ratio.
Speaking at the CWC meeting, Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi Rahul described the scrapping of MGNREGA as an attack on the Federal structure of the country, saying the decision was taken single-handedly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, much like demonetisation, without taking anyone into confidence, neither the minister concerned nor the Cabinet.
Mr Gandhi said MGNREGA was not just a scheme but a rights-based concept. He said the government of India had attacked this rights-based framework and undermined the Federal structure of the country, besides snatching the power of the gram panchayats.
The former Congress president remarked that money was being taken from the states by the Centre, leading not only to a concentration of power but a concentration of finances as well.
Mr Gandhi warned that scrapping MGNREGA will cause great loss to the country and the poor will be badly hurt. He said the decision was directly taken by the PMO without taking the concerned minister or cabinet into confidence. “This is a one-man show,” he remarked.
The senior Congress leader said that the entire benefit will go to a few billionaire friends of the Prime Minister. Pointing out that the MGNREGA was a rights-based law, Mr Gandhi said, "The BJP will make the rights-based architecture collapse, which will harm the rural economy."
Insiders claim that senior Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh raised organisational issues at the CWC meet. He claimed that there is overcentralisation in the party.
Later, speaking to reporters, Mr Singh said, “If you see my tenure as chief minister and party president, I have functioned with decentralisation and insisted that the organisation should be strengthened."