Congress To Launch National Stir On MGNREGA
“We raised issues and asked questions in Parliament. We participated in the debate and placed all our concerns and objections on record. Now, we will escalate the matter outside Parliament”: Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh
NEW DELHI: The Indian National Congress is set to launch a nationwide agitation against the abolition of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The modalities of the protest will be discussed and fine-tuned at a crucial Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting scheduled for December 27.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that after raising its concerns and objections within Parliament, the party would now take its opposition to the legislation to the streets. “We raised issues and asked questions in Parliament. We participated in the debate and placed all our concerns and objections on record. Now, we will escalate the matter outside Parliament,” he said.
Ramesh added that the CWC meeting would deliberate on the nature of the mass movement to be launched. “An action plan will certainly emerge. This will be a nationwide movement across all States,” he said, describing the legislation as a major issue for the party.
Meanwhile, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in a written article, warned that the “demolition” of MGNREGA would have catastrophic consequences for crores of people in rural India. She called upon all sections to unite and safeguard rights that protect citizens.
“MGNREGA realised Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Sarvodaya (welfare of all) and gave effect to the constitutional right to work,” she wrote, adding that it was imperative to defend such rights now more than ever.
Sonia Gandhi alleged that the employment guarantee scheme, designed to address rural distress, had been “bulldozed and demolished.” She noted that MGNREGA was a rights-based legislation inspired by Article 41 of the Constitution, which enjoins the State to secure the right to work.
“Over the past few days, the Narendra Modi government has moved to bulldoze the abolition of MGNREGA without discussion, consultation, or respect for parliamentary processes or Centre–State relations. The removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name was only the tip of the iceberg. The very structure of MGNREGA, which made it effective, has been dismantled,” she said.
She described the new VB-G RAM G framework as “nothing but a set of bureaucratic provisions” and alleged that the new Bill restricted the scope of the scheme to rural areas notified at the discretion of the Union government.