To mark the completion of 10 years of the MGNREGA scheme, the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) organised a convention here on Tuesday.
leader of Opposition Narsingh Mishra lashed out at the BJD and the BJP as they have “butchered” the scheme, MGNREGA.
“We brought the Food Security, MGNREGA, land Acquisition and RTI Bills, etc. But people here are poor and they are migrating for work to other States,” he said.
The MGNREGA was the UPA’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme, which was announced by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in February 2006, Mishra said.
Under the scheme, 100 days of work is given to job card holders, which were designed to reduce migration of the rural poor by providing them with work and wages. But the BJD Government is giving the people earth digging work and the labourers are now reluctant to work under the scheme, he said.
Middlemen are also taking advantages as they are using machine and taking money of the labourers, Mishra said.
He also said the improper execution of the scheme has led to migration of thousands of people from western Odisha every year. The State Government has failed to provide 100 days of work to labourers, Mishra rued.
If the scheme is implemented properly then there would be no hunger death. “I appeal to all the Congress workers to help to reach the scheme to the people,” he added.
Former MP Rama Chandra Khuntia’s book Impact of MGNREGS in India was released on the occasion.
Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan chaired the meeting and spoke about the benefits of the scheme. He criticised the BJD Government for failing to use Central funds appropriately for the State’s development and appealed to the people to vote judiciously.
Among others, Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Hemananda Biswal, Jayadev Jena and Niranjan Patnaik also spoke.
Party workers including Sarpanches and Panchayat Samiti members from across the State were present.