Congress on Thursday alleged that the Modi Government has been cutting the MNREGA budget day by day, with the intention that the poor should not stand on their feet, and are unable to live with dignity.
The budget 2020-21 budget of Rs 1.10 Lakh crore has now been reduced to Rs 83,000 crore, the party alleged at a Press conference addressed by senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Randeep Surjewala.
“During the pandemic, when people were returning from all over the country back to their homes and villages, they needed work, which was not available while the money under NREGA was reduced. In the past, when I raised the issues of NREGA as a Leader of Opposition in the Lower House, the Prime Minister mocked the opposition benches and said that NREGA will not be stopped because it is a living example of their failures. Yet, this same scheme was useful to so many people. But today they are bent on eliminating it," said Kharge, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
Kharge termed the move to allegedly do away with the NREGA as an attempt to “enslave” the poor and take away their self-respect and dignity. He said that those who work under this scheme are mainly Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Kharge said the rural employment scheme started by the Congress-led UPA government achieved a lot of developmental work and employment through this act.
Surjewala termed the Modi government “fascist” and supported the protest by journalists who are being debarred from covering the Parliament. Surjewala said that the voices of farmers, youth, parliament and its members, and now journalists, is not being heard in the country.
“This is the first time In 75 years that our journalists had to protest, which is a shameful thing… we condemn this act by the government in the strongest terms. The Government should wake up”, he said.