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Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge launched a scathing attack on the Modi government on Thursday, accusing it of neglecting MGNREGA workers by refusing to raise daily wages.
In a post on X, Kharge, while citing recommendations from a Joint Parliamentary Committee and the Amarjeet Sinha-led High-Level Committee, said the government's refusal to implement a wage hike to Rs 400 and expand the scheme's budget reflects its anti-poor stance. "It seems that the anti-people Modi government has refused to increase MGNREGA wages. This is like attacking the rights of MNREGA workers. Recently, the Joint Parliamentary Committee had recommended increasing the daily wage of MNREGA workers to Rs 400. Amarjeet Sinha's High Level Committee, formed in 2023, had also suggested increasing wages and increasing the budget of MNREGA," Kharge said. He claimed that the "anti-poor Modi government is bent on oppressing MNREGA workers one after the other." "Be it excluding nearly seven crore registered workers from MNREGA by imposing the condition of Aadhaar-based payment, or allocating the lowest MNREGA budget in the last 10 years as compared to the total budget, the Modi government has been continuously hitting MNREGA hard," the Congress Chief said. Mallikarjun Kharge further affirmed their demands: " A Minimum wage of Rs 400 per day should be fixed for MNREGA workers. Provide at least 150 days of work in a year." The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act's vision is to enhance the livelihood security of rural households across the country by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The scheme encourages a sense of community and collective responsibility by strengthening Panchayat Raj institutions. MGNREGA promotes a bottom-up approach to planning and execution, empowering local communities to take charge of their development. Through the creation of productive assets of prescribed quality and durability, the scheme addresses immediate economic needs while laying the foundation for long-term prosperity. (ANI)
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