Coronavirus: Keep aside politics, implement UPA's MGNREGA, says Congress President Sonia Gandhi

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday said the Modi government had to “grudgingly” accept the ambitious rural jobs initiative MGNREGA of the UPA in the time of distress unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Gandhi, in an article released by the party, asked the Modi government to keep aside politics and implement MGNREGA to provide jobs to the dejected workers who are returning from towns and cities to their villages in droves.

“My plea to the government is, this is a time of national crisis, not a time to play politics. This is not a BJP versus Congress issue. You have a powerful mechanism at hand, please use it to help the people of India in their time of need,” the Congress President said.

She reminded the Modi government that MGNREGA was not a centralised programme and urged it to strengthen the capacity of panchayats to manage public works projects.

PM Modi had ridiculed MGNREGA as the “living monument of the failures of the UPA government”.

“Deeds are more important than words, and nothing speaks more eloquently than the Finance Minister’s recent and belated increase in the overall allocation of the programme to more than Rs 1 lakh crore,” Gandhi said underscoring that the Modi government was “obliged” to fall back on UPA’s flagship rural relief initiative in time of crisis.