Chandigarh, January 4
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) today took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s proposed campaign on ‘VB G RAM G’, saying party was trying to defend the indefensible as it was worried about the party’s (Congress’) nationwide campaign, ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’.
Reacting to the announcement of the BJP that it will launch an “awareness campaign” about scrapping of the MGNREGA, PPCC president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said that the BJP had first tried to bring the legislation in the parliament stealthily on the penultimate day of the winter session and rushed through to pass it and was now trying to mislead people outside.
“If the BJP had nothing to hide and really wanted the people to know about the VB G RAM G, why did it not allow a detailed debate in the parliament? The PPCC president asked”, while adding that the BJP has also realized that it has taken a wrong step and was now trying to divert the public attention.
He said that the VB G RAM G legislation will also meet the same fate as that of three farm laws which the BJP government was forced to withdraw with apology to the farmers.
“While it was mainly the farmers who were agitated over the three agriculture laws, this time the BJP has targeted entire section of the marginalized communities like the Dalits, the OBCs, the tribals and women who used to get benefitted from the MGNREGA and are now up in arms against the party”, he noted.
Warring said that the Congress has already announced to launch the ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’, which the BJP is worried about and has now started last-minute fire fighting measures, which are not going to help the party in any way.
The PPCC president said, instead of trying to divert the attention of the public, the BJP should explain why it cut the allocation of funds for MGNREGA labour from 100 per cent to 60 per cent. He clarified, while the ratio under MGNREGA was 90:10 but for the expenditure incurred on paying the labour, it was 100 percent from the centre, while the ten percent expenses were for other materials used in implementing the scheme.
