Ludhiana, December 29
In a major announcement, the Punjab Congress will launch a mass movement across the state to save the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) from Gurdaspur on January 8. This was announced by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Commiteee (PPCC) President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring at a special press conference here today. He said, in the first phase, the party was holding press conferences across the state, which will be followed up by mass movement across the state.
The PPCC president said that the Congress party has taken up the issue at the national level. He noted that the Congress Working Committee held a special meeting on the matter and decided to launch a nationwide campaign against the government’s proposal to scrap the scheme. Warring said that the BJP government had acted the same way as it did when it introduced three black farm laws, which it had to eventually withdraw in view of the farmers’ protests. He said, the new scheme replacing the MGNREGA is also like a black law. He said the BJP was trying to snatch the livelihood of lakhs of rural poor and the marginalized by scrapping the MGNREGA, which had otherwise transformed the rural employment and economy.
The PPCC president said that the greatest difference between the MGNREGA and the new law is that MGNREGA guaranteed 100 days of work to the rural poor. He said, anyone could demand work as a matter of constitutional right, which the government was bound to provide. But, now, the BJP has taken away that right of the poor and the downtrodden.
Warring also criticized the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in the state for its failure to provide work under MGNREGA. He said, now the AAP government was trying to hide behind the new law of the BJP. He said the special session was just an eyewash as the AAP had betrayed the rural poor already by failing to provide 100 days of work under MGNREGA.
Giving details, Warring said, in Punjab, only 42 per cent work was provided under MGNREGA under the AAP rule. He said, this was because of the inefficiency of the government, which could not provide the ten per cent matching grant to the 90 per cent grant provided by the centre till now.
The PPCC president said that the new law will be more devastating for Punjab as now the state will have to provide 40 per cent share against ten per cent earlier. “When the AAP government could not provide ten per cent, how can it provide 40 per cent?” he asked, while asserting that the AAP cannot escape the responsibility of its own failures with its token resistance like holding a special session of the Vidhan Sabha.
Among those present during the press conference included urban and rural unit district president Sanjeev Talwar and Major Singh Mullanpur, former ministers Rakesh Pandey, Milkiat Singh Dakha, former MLAs Surinder Dawer, Kudeep Vaid, Simarjit Singh Bains, Balwinder Bains and senior party leaders Pawan Dewan.
