Jaipur, July 2 (IANS) Rajasthan’s Leader of Opposition (LoP) and veteran Congress leader, Tika Ram Jully, on Thursday questioned the Rajasthan government’s reported move to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with the proposed Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission-Gramin (VB-G RAM-G) scheme, raising concerns over its funding pattern and financial viability.

In a statement, Jully asked the Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma to clarify the state’s stand when even Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states had expressed reservations over the proposed scheme.

“Three major states, including BJP-ruled Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, along with Jharkhand, have reportedly raised serious objections to the funding pattern of the new scheme. They have argued that the requirement for states to bear 40 per cent of the expenditure makes it financially difficult to provide the promised 125 days of rural employment,” the LoP said.

He asked whether the Rajasthan government supported imposing what he termed an “additional financial burden” on the state and sought the Chief Minister’s response to concerns raised by governments led by his own party.

Highlighting the significance of MGNREGA, Jully said the employment guarantee programme, introduced by the Congress-led UPA government, had become a vital pillar of rural livelihood and social security.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, when urban employment had virtually collapsed, MGNREGA protected the rural economy and ensured that millions of families continued to earn a livelihood. Attempting to weaken such a successful programme merely for the sake of renaming schemes would be detrimental to rural India,” he added.

The Leader of Opposition also said that the previous Congress government in Rajasthan had increased the number of guaranteed workdays under MGNREGA from 100 to 125 in the 2022-23 state budget to provide additional support to rural families.

He alleged that the BJP government was “blindly following” what he described as an incomplete and impractical model of the Centre, warning that the proposed changes could place an additional financial burden on both rural labourers and the state’s finances.

Jully urged the state government to address the economic and technical concerns surrounding the proposed scheme instead of focusing on publicity and the renaming of welfare programmes.

The Congress leader shared his statement on social media, questioning the state government’s position on the proposed changes to the rural employment programme.

–IANS

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