Chandigarh, January 7
Congress will launch the ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ in Punjab from Gurdaspur tomorrow. This is part of the party’s nationwide movement against the scrapping of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and replacing it with Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission-Gramin (VB G RAM G).
Announcing the programme of agitation, here today, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said that the movement against scrapping of MGNREGA will reach out to each and every corner of the state right up to the block and village level. He said, the first phase of the ‘MGNRGA Bachao Sangram’ will start in Punjab from March 8 from Gurdaspur and will conclude on March 12 covering nine districts of Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Bathinda, Moga and Ferozepur. Further programmes will be announced later.
AICC general secretary in charge Punjab and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Bhagel will launch the movement in Punjab from Gurdaspur. He will be attending all the programmes across the state. Warring criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the centre for scrapping the MGNREGA, which had improved rural employment and provided livelihood to crores of downtrodden and marginalized people across the country during the last twenty years. He took a dig at the BJP’s ongoing campaign in Punjab to defend the scrapping of MGNREGA on the pretext of it not being properly implemented. He said, while it is a fact that the AAP government in Punjab had miserably failed in implementing MGNREGA in Punjab due to its inefficiency, that does not mean the scheme should be scrapped.
Referring to the BJP’s public meetings, he recalled that the BJP leaders and their allies had defended the three controversial farm laws the same way and eventually the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to withdraw these with an unconditional apology to the farmers of the country. Warring predicted that the same thing will happen with MGNREGA also as the BJP government will eventually succumb to mass pressure and withdraw the new law with apologies to crores of Indians who are being deprived of their livelihood by the BJP government.
The PPCC president also criticized the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab for its failure to implement MGNREGA in Punjab. He said, the implementation of the scheme under the AAP government was negligible. He also said that the AAP had tried to wash its hands off from the responsibility by merely holding a token “special session” of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, without any intention to do anything on the ground.
