Demand for MGNREGA increased in rural India: Congress president Kharge

The economic crisis in rural India is so deep that in September the demand for MGNREGA has increased by 30pc in 4 years, said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in a post on X

New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said on Friday in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the economic crisis in the rural parts of the country has increased the demand for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), but PM Modi has failed to do anything about it.

“The economic crisis in rural India is so deep that in September the demand for MGNREGA has increased by 30pc in 4 years,” said Kharge in a post on X.

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The post further read, “Instead of doing anything about it (increased MGNREGA demand), the Prime Minister is cursing the Congress in election states for hiding his failures under his speeches.” The post further mentioned that due to drastically decreasing household income and inflation, crores of people are forced to wander from door to door in search of work under MGNREGA.

“The situation is that only 4 percent of funds are left in the MGNREGA budget,” said Kharge in his post.

He further said that in Budget 2023, the Modi government had cut the MGNREGA budget by 33 percent, as a result of which poor families are suffering and funds of opposition-ruled states are also pending.

You can criticize Congress as much as you want but do not take away the rights of the poor, said Kharge.

Earlier, on Thursday, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had also staged a protest in Kolkata against the central government alleging inadequate disbursement of funds for MGNREGA and other social security schemes for West Bengal.

The TMC leaders during the protest said that the march to the Raj Bhavan has been organized to draw Governor C. V. Ananda Bose’s attention to the plight of the poor people of the state who have been deprived of their rights by the BJP-led central Government.

TMC minister Babu Supriyo told ANI that the people of Bengal are with TMC and people over here at the protest are not just TMC workers but the common public of Bengal who have been deprived of their wages under MGNREGA.