By Muslim Mirror News,
Jaipur: The Soochna Evam Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan (SR Abhiyan) has strongly objected to the proposal by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in which she suggests turning the MGNREG Act from a law into a scheme. The Abhiyan has threatened on Friday to launch a state-wide agitation if the MGNREGA is reduced to a mere scheme. Activists said that such a move will be simply unacceptable to them as the NREG Act must remain a law.
It is to be recalled that the Rajasthan Chief Minister has written a letter to the Central Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari in which she has suggested that the MGNREGA should be run as a scheme. She writes, “It is a moot issue why rural employment should be guaranteed by an Act, and why such employment cannot be delivered, or even guaranteed, as a scheme”. “It is difficult to see the advantages of an Act, except that it can lead to increase litigation by all manner of organisations. Whether it is to be NREGA or NREGS is a matter of debate and decision,” Raje has said.
Member of the Rajasthan Employment Guarantee Council and Co-convener of the Soochna Evam Rozgar Abhiyan, social activist Nikhil Dey questioned the motives behind this move of Chief Minister Raje in a Press Conference in Jaipur on Friday. He made it plain that as a law the NREGA gives a legal right to the laborers (to demand and get work) and makes the state accountable. If the NREGA is reduced to a scheme, then there would be no accountability of the state towards the laborers. He said that if the government will shy away from its responsibility to provide work to the 50 lakh active job-card holders then people will have to agitate and fight to get this right of theirs. He emphasized that the peoples’ struggle to realize their right to work cannot be simply passed away as frivolous litigation. He also said that this move of the CM is simply unacceptable as it is against the interest of poor laborers and it will also push Rajasthan’s development backwards. He said that we’ll take this letter to the people in all villages and will agitate against this drastic move.
On this occasion, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Secretary Kavita Srivastava said that the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) had praised the MGNREGA in their manifesto and even later they kept saying that no welfare programmes will be shut. However, this proposal by CM Raje puts a big question mark on the mere survival of the poor laborers who are already struggling with the rising inflation and the threats of an imminent drought. She said that women constitute over 90 per cent of the NREGA workforce and they are getting at least some money into their hands through the NREGA, but, the government seems to intend to snatch away even this from them.
Sarpanch of the Harmara Panchayat (Ajmer) Naurati Bai wanted to know from the Chief Minister as to how the government will be harmed if the NREGA remained as a law. She said that the NREGA doesn’t discriminate against anyone and it has become the beacon of hope for many poor people in villages as they are able to get two square meals in their own villages through it. She said that the government seems to be adamant on snatching even the basic entitlements of the people.
Richa of the Jan Chetna Manch said that there will be no ‘employment guarantee’ left in the NREGA if it is turned into a scheme. Ashwini Paliwal of Aastha, Udaipur, said that the NREGA provides a right to employment guarantee to the people which cannot be reduced to a mere scheme as it is against the interest of laborers.
On this occasion a written note by renowned economist Mr. V.S. Vyas was also read out, in which he termed the NREGA as an exemplary and sensitive effort of the state. He said that any attempt to overhaul the NREGA without wide consultations will weaken and degenerate it and it will show that the state is shying away from its responsibility to provide the right to work to the people.
The SR Abhiyan highlighted that Rajasthan is the birth-place of the NREGA, the state is also drought-prone and the people are always in a need of some employment and such a move by the state chief is a huge cause for concern. The government has said on many occasions that no cuts will be allowed in ration, pension, NREGA etc. and in fact these programmes will be reformed. However, the government is now going back on its promise which will not be accepted and a state-wide agitation will be launched against this. The peoples’ organizations emphasised that 90 per cent of the funds in the NREGA come from the Centre (as it is a law today), however, if it is turned into a mere scheme then the Centre won’t be required to allocate this money which will result into a loss of thousands of crores for the state and will also deprive the laborers from their right to work.
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