Amid VB-G RAM G Bill, Mamata names job guarantee scheme after Mahatma Gandhi
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has strongly reacted against the new Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, which is likely to replace the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA).
Saying that her government would now rename its rural job guarantee programme after Mahatma Gandhi, Banerjee on Thursday said that she was “ashamed” at how some nationalists were not inclined to show respect to our national icons.
“I am ashamed that they have decided to remove Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the NREGA programme. I feel ashamed because I too belong to this country, and this is a shame that we are now forgetting even the Father of the Nation,” Banerjee said.
The Chief Minister was speaking at a business and industry conclave in Kolkata.
“We will now rename the Karmashree scheme of our State after Mahatma Gandhi,” Banerjee said, claiming the Karmashree scheme of her Government ensured up to 75 days of work to beneficiaries, “though the Centre has blocked all our funds.” The Karmashree scheme would now encompass 100 days of work, Banerjee said.
“Though the Centre has stopped funds, we have created our own workdays under ‘Karmashree’, a project we have managed to do from our party resources, and we will continue to do so that the people get employment,” she said. In an apparent reference to the BJP’s allegations that Bengal had turned into an “industrial graveyard,” under her rule, Banerjee hit back at the saffron rulers, saying it was because of the policies of the Central Government that the businessmen were getting scared.
Slamming the Centre for setting the agencies after the businessmen, Banerjee said, “How will the business come if you continue to harass the investors? They are always afraid of where the agencies will rise the next morning,” advising those in power to free the investors from their shackles. “Let the industrialists feel free. It is their duty to take care of their businesses. It is not the duty of the Government to interfere in every business. We want freedom for industrialists also,” the Chief Minister said, condemning the way the goods and services tax regime functioned.
“Earlier we thought that the GST would be good for the States but now we are seeing that it is doing more harm as the States have no other source of revenue and as the GST is the only sources of taxation which is taken away by the Centre and then the State’s share is not given back it is difficult for us to carry on the developmental works.
“Now you tell me where is the pain and where is the gain,” Banerjee said on Wednesday, slamming the critics for defaming Bengal, which she claimed had “transformed a lot in the past several years,” adding how Bengal today was regarded as the gateway for the northeastern States.
