Jaipur: Congress members held a statewide silent satyagraha with a day’s fast across Rajasthan Sunday to protest against replacement of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by VB G RAM G Act.The protest and fast in Jaipur were led at Amar Jawan Jyoti by AICC’s Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra, and Leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully. Similar dharnas and fasts were organised by district Congress committees at all district headquarters under the party’s ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ campaign.Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) has constituted a 10-member coordination committee, headed by former Assembly Speaker C P Joshi, to oversee and guide the campaign across the state.Addressing the media, Dotasara alleged that the BJP govt at the Centre had effectively abolished MGNREGA and replaced it with a new framework that deprives the rural poor of their guaranteed right to work. He said the BJP was misleading people by claiming that the Congress’s opposition was merely over a change in the scheme’s name.Dotasara claimed that under the new provisions there was no statutory guarantee of employment, that work would be available only to the extent of budgetary allocations by the Centre, and states would be forced to bear 40% of the wage burden which was earlier entirely funded by the Centre. He alleged that Rajasthan’s financial condition has worsened in the two years of the BJP govt, making it difficult to pay salaries, pensions and scholarships. He said Rajasthan was in no position to shoulder the additional financial burden.
Statewide silent protest by Cong against scrapping of MGNREGA | Jaipur News
