Ludhiana Congress workers protest renaming of MGNREGA
Holding portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, along with the Congress flag, party workers took to streets and raised slogans
On Thursday, Congress workers staged a protest under the leadership of senior party leader Krishan Kumar Bawa, coordinator, All India Congress (OBC) and in-charge, Himachal Pradesh, at Lohara Bridge in the Ludhiana South constituency.
The protest was held against the BJP-led Central Government’s decision to change the name and overall framework of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
Holding portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, along with the Congress flag, party workers took to streets and raised slogans. Senior leaders, including Rajinder Bajwa, Gurnam Singh, Varinder Bhalla, Kuldeep Sharma and Ratnesh Kumar were among others present.
Addressing the gathering, Bawa said the MGNREGA scheme was launched by the Congress government, led by Dr Manmohan Singh, without restrictive conditions. Under the scheme, every individual was entitled to employment within 15 days, with 90 per cent of the expenditure borne by the Central Government and it was implemented uniformly across the country.
He alleged that the Centre had altered the scheme by deciding that 40 per cent of the funding would be borne by state governments and 60 per cent by the Central Government while the authority to decide where and when the scheme would be implemented will rest solely with the Centre.
Bawa pointed out that many state governments were not financially capable of contributing 40 per cent, which clearly indicates that the scheme had been systematically weakened.
“The soul of the public welfare scheme has been taken away, only its skeleton remains,” he said.
He said removing the name of Mahatma Gandhi from the scheme reflects hatred towards him and an ideological alignment with the thinking of Nathuram Godse.
