Congress is entering the battle for MGNREGA at the outset. In order to gently refute the government's "misinformation" about the new law and to raise "awareness" about the new "VB-G Ram G Act," which would replace MGNREGA, the party has instructed its employees to attend more gram sabha meetings that the central government has summoned starting on Friday.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal has instructed state units to tell the villagers that the new law has effectively ended the demand-driven program that had been a lifeline for the underprivileged and marginalized communities for 20 years and transformed the "right to work" into a budget-controlled scheme.
The special village assembly meetings have been described by the Congress directive as a "platform to mislead rural workers and beneficiaries by projecting the new legislation as pro-poor."
The union ministries of rural development and panchayati raj, led by secretaries Sailesh Kumar Singh and Vivek Bharadwaj, have written to the states to call gram sabhas on Friday in order to explain the key aspects of the new law to villagers, particularly SC/ST households and women, in response to the opposition's attacks regarding the dissolution of MGNREGA and threats of protests.
The Modi government and the opposition are at odds over the new law, which was abruptly introduced in Parliament during the just ended winter session and passed after a heated debate over the measure's finer features.
While denouncing the new program as an attempt by the government to place the financial burden on the states, the opposition enthusiastically supported MGNREGA.
Congress has asked the states to mobilize workers, elected officials, and frontal organizations, instructing them to fully engage in gram sabhas and refute the government's "misinformation" while outlining how the new law eliminates the MGNREGA's unfriendly provisions.
Congress is expected to discuss the job program and possibly create a protest plan for what Rahul Gandhi has described as the party's desire to force the government to revoke the new law at the forthcoming CWC meeting on Saturday.
