Harish Rao slams Centre’s decision to change name of MGNREGA

Senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao criticised the Centre’s move to rename MGNREGS and alter its funding pattern, calling it an attack on federalism. He warned the changes would burden states and weaken a key rural employment programme.

Hyderabad: Taking strong exception to Central government’s decision to renamig the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission, senior BRS leader and former minister, T. Harish Rao Harish Rao described the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the flagship rural employment scheme as highly deplorable.

He argued that the change is not merely cosmetic but represents a direct assault on the country’s federal structure.

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Taking to social media platform ‘X’, the former minister criticised the proposed shift in funding ratio from the current model—where the Centre bears the full cost of unskilled wages— to a 60:40 sharing between the Centre and states (90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan states).

He accused the BJP-led government of deliberately weakening the scheme by imposing additional financial burden on states, which would ultimately harm the poor reliant on guaranteed employment.” This provision will mount economic pressure on states and effectively cripple a programme meant to provide work to the impoverished,” Harish Rao said.

He expressed anguish over the potential dilution of the scheme’s core objective. He further alleged that the Bill is being used as a tool by the Centre to reduce states’ powers while expanding its own dominance undermining the autonomy granted to states by the Constitution.

Harish Rao also targeted the Congress party for its “silence” on the issue. He criticised the party for failing to question the injustice to states from the 60:40 ratio, accusing it of hypocrisy by publicly championing federalism and states’ rights while tacitly supporting BJP’s centralising measures in Parliament.”