New Delhi: The Congress announced on Saturday that it would launch a nationwide agitation against the Centre pressing for restoration of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), saying that it is ‘not charity. It is a legal guarantee’, The Hindu reported.
The Opposition party demanded withdrawal of the recently introduced the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (VB-G RAM G) Act, while seeking to restore ‘(MGNREGA) in its original, rights-based form’.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge posted on X that ‘MGNREGA is not charity. It is a legal guarantee. Crores of poorest people got work in their own villages; MGNREGA reduced hunger and distress migration, raised rural wages, and strengthened women’s economic dignity.VB GRAM G is designed to dismantle this right’.
Joining a press conference alongside Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, K.C. Venugopal said that the party would challenge the Act in the court
The Congress leader alleged that by removing the legal guarantee to work and centralising powers, which were previously vested with the states and panchayats, the new law alters the nature of rural employment.
‘The new legislation strikes at the federal structure of the country. No consultations were held with State governments, even though their finances and administrative authority will be directly affected,’ Venugopal reportedly said.
Alongside weakening authority of Panchayati Raj institutions, employment is no longer a legal right as per the new Act, quite unlike under MGNREGA, he pointed out.
Venugopal said that his party would discuss with India bloc partners the question whether the Congress-ruled states would implement the law.
‘We will reach a consensus among Opposition-ruled Chief Ministers and explore all possible options going forward’, he said.
Weighing in on the issue, Jairam Ramesh alleged that the VB-G RAM G Act pointed to ‘dangerous centralisation’, adding that it would undermine the ‘constitutional balance between the Centre and the States’.