Regularise MGNREGA staffers: Minister to Centre
As 2,100 MGNREGA employees working across the state fear losing their jobs, the government on Saturday wrote to the Centre seeking the regularisation of MGNREGA employees under the newly introduced Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (VB-GRAM).
In a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond urged the Centre to formulate a uniform national policy guaranteeing their job security.
He said the state government stood firmly with over 2,100 MGNREGA employees in Punjab. He questioned the Centre’s decision to shift the financial burden of the new scheme on to states while leaving employees’ future uncertain. He demanded the immediate release of pending salaries and asserted that employees who have strengthened rural development programmes for nearly two decades couldn’t be abandoned after 18 years of service.
