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Senior Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao on Sunday criticised the Centre's proposed VB-G RAM G Bill, alleging that the government has diluted the spirit of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by removing Mahatma Gandhi's name and shifting the financial burden onto states.
He alleged that the Centre was weakening a scheme that had helped reduce poverty and suicides, and said replacing NREGA with a 'Ram' scheme would do injustice to the poor. Speaking to ANI, Rao said, "When people in the country were dying of hunger, seeing this, Sonia Gandhi and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to introduce NREGA. After 20 years, the current government has replaced it with a new scheme in the name of Ram. Sonia Gandhi has also said that this government has worked to kill the poor. After NREGA, the number of people committing suicide also decreased." "The current government has removed Mahatma Gandhi's name from this scheme and added Viksit Bharat. If Mahatma Gandhi had not given us freedom, could Viksit Bharat have been possible?... Their intention under this bill is wrong. Instead of benefiting the poor, they are doing injustice to them. Under the scheme, employment has been increased to 25 days, but what is the benefit of this when 40% of the funds will be given by the state governments, which are not capable of providing," he added. The remarks came after the Parliament passed the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB--G RAM G) Bill, with the Rajya Sabha approving the legislation hours after the Lok Sabha passed it. Meanwhile, the party decided to hold a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting next week, on December 27, to decide on its plan of opposing the VB G RAM G Bill nationwide. Rajya Sabha MP Sonia Gandhi accused the Centre of 'bulldozing' the MGNREGA, which proved to be a lifeline for the poor during the COVID times. "In the last 11 years, the Modi government has ignored the interests of the unemployed, the poor, and the deprived in rural areas, making every effort to weaken MGNREGA, even though during the COVID times, it proved to be a lifeline for the poor," Sonia Gandhi said. "It is a matter of great regret that just recently, the government ran a bulldozer over MGNREGA. Not only was Mahatma Gandhi's name removed, but the form and structure of MGNREGA was changed arbitrarily--without any deliberation, without consulting anyone, without taking the opposition into confidence," she added. The Bill guarantees 125 days of wage employment per rural household, up from the existing 100 days, for adult members willing to undertake unskilled manual work. As per Section 22 of the Bill, the fund-sharing pattern between the Central Government and the State Governments will be 60:40, while for the North Eastern States, Himalayan States, and Union Territories (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir), it will be 90:10. Section 6 of the Bill allows the state governments to notify in advance, a period aggregating to sixty days in a financial year, covering the peak agricultural seasons of sowing and harvesting. (ANI)
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