Rahul Gandhi Writes To Prime Minister On The "Devastating Plight" Of MGNREGA Workers
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers are not getting their work and wages because the central government not releasing funds for the scheme.
In his letter to the prime minister, Rahul Gandhi said that a delegation of MGNREGA workers from West Bengal approached him during the ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra, raising their concerns over the devastating plight of the scheme. On the same issue, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier this month conducted a sit-in protest against the centre.
“Lack of our brothers and sisters have been denied work and wages under MGNREGA due to the stoppage of central funds to West Bengal since March 2022. I was informed that many workers have not been paid for work completed in 2021 due to the shortfall in funds,” Rahul Gandhi wrote in his letter.
The MGNREGA had started in 2005 under the UPA government guaranteeing hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to adult members of a rural household. All the rural households who want employment and are willing to do unskilled manual work had access to the scheme, reducing rural unemployment.
However, noting the current situation of the scheme and the huge decrease in work that the rural workers were availing, the congress leader wrote that there has been a drastic decline in the number of households availing work from 75 Lakh in 2021-22 to under 8000 households.
The Congress MP also pointed out that the most vulnerable to the deteriorating situation of the MGNREGA scheme are the women and SC and ST households. The lack of work under the scheme, he says has forced many to opt for migration, noting the hard choice of the vulnerable population.
However, Rahul Gandhi concluded his letter by requesting the Union government to facilitate the release of the funds to clear pending wages. He also urged the government to rise above the politics and deliver social and economic justice, noting the significance of the scheme to the social and economic justice in the rural area.
