Chandigarh: The AAP government on Tuesday brought a resolution against the VB-G RAM G Act in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha and accused the BJP-led Centre of trying to finish the MGNREGA.
Rural Development and Panchayat minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond tabled the resolution in the House for discussion during the one-day session of the Assembly.
Sond said that the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G, Act will severely impact below-poverty-line families, Scheduled Caste communities, and rural labourers who depend on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for survival.
Sond alleged that the Centre wanted to “finish” the MGNREGA, and demanded its restoration.
According to the resolution, the state Assembly deprecated the VB-G RAM G Act, which it said takes away the right to guaranteed wages/employment from poor labourers, women, and lakhs of job card-holding families of the state.
During the special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the newly rechristened ‘Viksit Bharat – Guarantee Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin (VB-G RAM G)’ is aimed at snatching food, jobs and dignity from Dalits, women and the poorest families.
He asserted that by rushing the new law through Parliament within just 14 hours, the Union govt has hollowed out the very soul of the rights-based Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.