PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
The leader of opposition (LoP) in Vidhan Sabha, Yashpal Arya has said that the restructured Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) which has been renamed as Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajivika Mission- Gramin ( VB- G RAM G) act is weakening the basic principle of Right to Work.
In a statement on Monday, Arya said that apart from removing the name of Mahatma Gandhi many other changes have been done in the scheme. He said that the Union government’s share in the scheme has been reduced from 90 per cent to 60 per cent. The MGNREGA was a scheme for the unskilled labourers whose budget was mainly provided by the Union government now the states will have to provide 40 per cent budget for it.
Arya further added that the MGNREGA was a demand based scheme under which the union government had to make payment for the work demanded by the labourer. He added that under the new scheme the work will not be demand based but would be on the basis of pre-determined norms and budget allocations. Arya said that in the new scheme GIS equipment, PM Gati Shakti and digital network of the central government will be necessary. The local priorities will now get filtered through the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure stack where biometrics, geo-tagging, dashboards and audits will be mandatory.
“ It is clear that lakhs of labourers which don’t understand technology will be deprived of the work. The Union government will determine the budget of the States which clearly means that the states where opposition parties are in power will suffer losses,’’ he said.
