Demanding the proper implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), various farmers’, women and labour organisations launched day and night protests outside the office of Kalaburagi MP Umesh Jadhav on Thursday.
Activists from various organisations including K. Neela, Meenakshi Bali, Sharanabasappa Mamshetty, Bheemshetty Yempalli, and Padmini Kiranagi accused the BJP-led government at Centre of hatching a conspiracy to end the MGNREGA scheme.
Though the Centre has introduced the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) to improve efficiency, due to lack of internet infrastructure in rural areas and difficultly in accessing technology in uploading photographs and registering attendance is causing workers to lose out on their working days.
The MGNREGA scheme introduced by the UPA-I government to ensure at least 100 days employment to rural workers and check the migration. The protesters accused the Modi-led BJP government of attempting to end the scheme by cutting budgets and delaying payments to workers.
The activists demanded that the Union government increase the number of working days under MGNREGA scheme to 200and hike the wages from ₹316 to ₹700 per day.
