Congress on Saturday alleged that the central government is changing the name of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to take credit for it. This is ‘just a cosmetic change to hide the deliberate neglect of the scheme.’
According to sources, the Union Cabinet on Friday approved the bill to change the name of MNREGA and increase the number of working days under it. He told that the name of this scheme will now be changed to ‘Pujya Bapu Rural Employment Scheme’. Under this, the number of working days will be increased from the present 100 days to 125 days.
Congress general secretary and organization in-charge KC Venugopal said that the Prime Minister had once called MNREGA a ‘monument of failure’, but now he is changing its name to take credit for this revolutionary scheme. He alleged, ‘This is another way to erase Mahatma Gandhi from our national consciousness, especially from the villages, where he said the soul of India resides.’
Venugopal posted on
Venugopal said in a post on social media platform ‘X’, ‘This step is also just a cosmetic change to hide the deliberate neglect towards this scheme.’
He said that MNREGA workers are demanding higher wages, but the central government is cutting the funds allocated for this scheme every year. Venugopal said, ‘The outstanding amount has been increasing and it seems that this is a deliberate strategy to gradually end the scheme. In fact, this government has no intention of continuing the welfare schemes and is just pretending when it cannot think of any other solution.
He said, ‘But Honorable Modi, you can change its name as much as you want, people know that Dr. Manmohan Singh ji and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi ji had brought this transformative scheme to every village of India.’
