Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday accused the Centre of steadily reducing allocations for the rural employment scheme MNREGA, and said changing the scheme’s name was part of a broader attempt to "wind it up".
The BJP’s objective is not just to rename MGNREGA but to say only 'Ram Ram' to the scheme (a final farewell to the scheme), he charged, adding the ruling party “cannot tolerate anyone else earning a livelihood”.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have been attacking the Centre over the newly enacted Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), 2025, which has replaced the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
In a post on X, Yadav said, “What will be achieved by changing the name of MGNREGA? In reality, this is the BJP’s secret conspiracy to slowly finish MGNREGA.”
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister alleged that the Centre was steadily reducing allocations for the rural employment scheme while simultaneously increasing financial pressure on states.
“On one hand, the BJP government is cutting the MGNREGA budget to the bare minimum. On the other, it has created such pressure on states to spend their own resources that, due to non-receipt of funds from the Centre under the GST system, states already grappling with empty treasuries will find it impossible to arrange additional budgets,” Yadav said.
He claimed this would force states to “themselves move towards ending the scheme”.
Yadav further alleged that the BJP-led government had dealt another blow to MGNREGA by categorising hundreds of gram sabhas under the ‘urban category’, which, he said, resulted in the loss of their MGNREGA-related budgetary support.
Slamming the Congress and the INDIA bloc over its opposition to the VB GRAM G law, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on Tuesday said those who "plundered" the country's resources for decades and pushed the poor into hunger were now questioning a transparent reform aimed at strengthening rural India.
"The VB-G RAM G Act will prove to be a milestone for India's workers, farmers and rural development, and the Uttar Pradesh government fully supports it and is committed to its effective implementation," he had said.