Bhubaneswar, Jan 19 (IANS) The Congress, under the banner of the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan (RGPRS), on Monday, organised a satyagraha (protest march) at the Lower PMG Square in Bhubaneswar, protesting the replacement of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) with the newly introduced VB–G RAM–G scheme.

The protesters later submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Odisha, Hari Babu Kambhampati over the issue.

The protest was led by Sunil Panwar, National Chairman of RGPRS; Sudarshan Das, State Chairperson of RGPRS; and several senior executive body members and supporters, who sat in the agitation as a mark of protest, demanding the immediate restoration of MGNREGS.

Reacting to the issue, Panwar said that crores of poor people in the country, whom he described as the real owners of the nation, have been demanding their rightful share for a long time.

“The Congress gave them the Right to Work in the form of MGNREGS, a rights-based law. However, last month the BJP government abolished the MGNREGS Act in the Parliament and brought in a new scheme-based law under the name VB–G RAM–G,” he alleged.

Panwar added that the fundamental difference between the two was that MGNREGS was a rights-based legislation, while VB–G RAM–G is a scheme-based programme that can be discontinued at any time.

“Under MGNREGS, registered job cardholders had the legal right to demand work within 15 days. That right has now been taken away under VB–G RAM–G,” he said.

He also added that earlier, Panchayati Raj institutions had the authority to decide what kind of work would be undertaken in villages and when workers could seek employment during any month of the year.

“If work was not provided within 15 days, the worker was entitled to unemployment allowance. All these safeguards have been removed, depriving the labour class of their rights,” Panwar said.

Criticising the revised funding pattern implemented by the Union government, Panwar said that earlier the Central government bore 100 per cent of the wage cost, while states were responsible only for administrative expenses.

“Now a 60:40 funding ratio has been imposed. States with weak finances will not be able to start development works, effectively denying employment to rural workers,” he warned.

Addressing the gathering, Sudarshan Das, Odisha Chairperson of RGPRS, alleged that the present BJP government has repealed the spirit of the original MGNREGS Act by introducing VB–G RAM G scheme, which, he claimed, dilutes the constitutional intent of the right to work enshrined under the Directive Principles of State Policy.

–IANS

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