The sharp Budget cut for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has left the State governments paralysed, senior Congress leader and chairman of the party’s “unorganised workers and employee” wing Udit Raj said on Tuesday, while protesting against what he called a systematic attack on the UPA-era poverty alleviation scheme.
“Unscrupulous and undeclared tactics of the government is to discourage the scheme by not allowing to upload the demands for the work on the central portal. Currently, about 15 crore households have job cards, but with the reduced Budget, the government cannot deliver its promise of providing 100 days of work per household. In fact, by some estimates the available Budget is enough only for 26 days of work,” Mr. Raj said.
Pointing out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments where he called MGNREGS a “monument of poverty” left behind by the Congress regime, he said that the government is out to kill the legislation.
“Can you imagine the plight of workers during the pandemic in the absence of the scheme? And despite that the government refuses to wake up to its importance,” Mr. Raj added.
