New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday criticised the Narendra Modi government’s decision to replace MGNREGA with the VB-G RAM G Act, calling it a “surgical strike” on rural India’s social safety net. The party also alleged that the “vote chori sarkaar” had “perfected” the theft of rural workers’ wages, PTI reported.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, based his criticism on a media report which said that, despite thousands being recorded as employed under the VB-G RAM G scheme in drought-affected Maharashtra, no labourers were present at five worksites in Beed.
Alleged Irregularities
Posting on X, Ramesh said, “Beed and other districts in Maharashtra are facing the worst drought in a decade. MGNREGA was the guarantee of support in such times of extreme distress. But its replacement with VB-G RAM G is nothing less than a surgical strike on the social safety net that protected rural India.”
Referring to a detailed ground report by a journalist, he claimed that most villagers had not received work for several months even though their names appeared on employment records.
“Instead, local politicians are pocketing their wages; no doubt belonging to the ruling party. Evidence of such fake attendance and clone app scams in UP and other BJP-ruled states has also been revealed in the media,” Ramesh said.
“This is not just corruption, but systemic theft of workers’ wages. The Vote Chori Sarkaar has perfected ‘gramin mazdoori chori (rural labour theft)’ also,” the Congress leader added.
Congress’s Wider Attack
The party had targeted the government last week as well, asserting that the VB-G RAM G Act offered only “technology-driven exclusion, centralisation and the emasculation of gram panchayats.”
It also criticised the BJP over alleged attendance-related fraud in the scheme, saying the party’s real approach was to curtail the rights of the poor while invoking Lord Shri Ram.
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, or VB-G RAM G Act, came into effect nationwide on July 1, replacing MGNREGA, the rural employment law enacted by the Congress-led UPA two decades ago.