Karnal, January 8: District Congress Committee Urban President Parag Gaba said that the changes being made to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) are against the interests of the poor and rural laborers. He alleged that under the new law, MNREGA is being weakened from its original spirit, making employment no longer a right but dependent on the government's discretion.
Parag Gaba said that MNREGA was a demand-driven scheme that provided relief to five to six crore rural families every year during times of economic hardship. Earlier, Gram Sabhas and Panchayats formulated schemes according to local needs, but now the entire decision-making power has been handed over to the central government, limiting Panchayats to a merely formal role.
He said that work will only be available in those Panchayats that are notified by the central government. This will deprive many Panchayats of funds and affect local development schemes, which is against the spirit of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment. In the new law, the budget and standard allocations have been predetermined, meaning that work will stop as soon as the funds run out. Gaba said that MNREGA had a system of notified wages linked to inflation, which has been abolished in the new law.
Furthermore, even the 60 days of work during the peak agricultural season will no longer be guaranteed. He demanded that the new law be immediately repealed and MNREGA be restored to its original form. Parag Gaba announced that the Congress party will launch a nationwide "Save MNREGA" campaign to protect MNREGA, which will begin in Karnal on January 10.