Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday accused the Modi government of "desecrating the groundbreaking law" MGNREGA in Parliament and said that two decades of progress have been overturned "without consultation" and by sidestepping all parliamentary conventions and procedure.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared a review document of the rural employment scheme released by the UPA government in 2012 on X to underline its achievements.
In a post on X, he said on July 14, 2012, the then prime minister, Manmohan Singh, released the MGNREGA Sameeksha bought out by the Ministry of Rural Development.
This was an anthology of 145 field studies conducted on MGNREGA between 2008 and 2012, including one by the CAG, Ramesh said.
It makes for required reading now, amid the "desecration of this groundbreaking law in Parliament over the last week", the Congress leader said.
"Two decades of progress have been overturned without consultation and by sidestepping all Parliamentary convention and procedure," Ramesh said.
Ramesh also shared a screenshot of the introduction of the MGNREGA Sameeksha document, which was released when he was in-charge of the rural development ministry.
His remarks come a day after Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi accused the Modi government of bulldozing the MGNREGA, and asserted that the "black law" that seeks to repeal it will be defied by the lakhs of party workers across the country.
In a video message, she had said that by weakening MGNREGA, the Modi government had attacked the interests of crores of farmers, labourers, and landless across the country.
She alleged that over the past 11 years, the Centre ignored the interests of the rural poor.
Parliament on Thursday passed the VB-G RAM G Bill that seeks to replace the 20-year-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA.
The proposed bill that guarantees 125 days of rural wage employment every year was met with vociferous protests by the Opposition.
Defending the bill, Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had asserted that it was needed to fix shortcomings in the old scheme.
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill was passed by both Houses on Thursday.
The Opposition strongly protested the removal of Mahatma Gandhi's name from the MGNREGA, and said that the government was putting the financial burden on states.