Congress slams Modi govt for ‘destroying MGNREGA’

The Congress accused the Modi government of dismantling MGNREGA, calling it a deliberate conspiracy to end the poor’s employment guarantee. Jairam Ramesh alleged that the new VB‑G RAM G Act has failed to deliver promised work, citing Ballia district figures.

New Delhi:  The Congress on Tuesday accused the Modi government of destroying the “lifeline” of the country’s poor, MGNREGA, and claimed that its real policy is to fill the coffers of crony capitalists by snatching the last morsel of bread from the poor.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared a media report on X which claimed that the job card holders in Ballia district are becoming disillusioned with the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), a trend clearly reflected in departmental statistics.

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“The Modi government has destroyed the lifeline of the country’s poor, MGNREGA, in the name of ‘VB G RAM G’. The BJP made grand speeches in Parliament, but on the ground, all those claims are proving to be empty hot air,” Ramesh said in his post in Hindi on X.

What the Congress had stated at the time of changing this scheme is now coming to light, he said.

The Modi government has ended the right to employment for the poor and the deprived, which had been ensured by the Congress, Ramesh claimed.

It is now clear that the Modi government had deliberately plotted to end the most successful and historic poverty alleviation scheme, MGNREGA, by enacting a new law, he said.

This was not just a matter of changing the name; it was a calculated conspiracy to snatch away the employment guarantee of the poor, Ramesh alleged.

In Ballia, against a target of 1.76 lakh man-day work, only 10,669 days of work were provided in two months. This story is being repeated in every district of the country, he said.

“In this back-breaking era of inflation, snatching the last morsel of bread from the poor to fill the coffers of crony capitalists is the real policy of the anti-poor Modi government,” Ramesh said.

As the VB-G RAM G Act came into effect earlier this year, the Congress had demanded the repeal of the rural employment scheme and that a strengthened MGNREGA be brought back, claiming the wages under the new law are unjustifiably low.

The opposition party had asserted that a just minimum wage for India’s workers would be ensured by adopting the 2019 recommendation of the expert committee headed by Dr Anoop Satpathy and accommodating the increase in prices since then.

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, or the VB G RAM G Act, came into force across the country from July 1, replacing the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), introduced by the Congress-led UPA.