Congress launches statewide yatra to defend MGNREGA from Centre’s ‘dilution’

Marking 20 years of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), AP Congress Committee president Y.S. Sharmila Reddy on Monday held a Rachabanda programme at Bandlapalle village, the historic site where MNREGA was launched on February 2, 2006. She also flagged off the ‘Upaadi Haami Parirakshana Yatra,’ a State-wide outreach initiative, from Bandlapalle.

The yatra aims to mobilise rural communities, MNREGA workers and job card holders to protect the employment guarantee programme, which has provided livelihood security to crores of families and continues to be a cornerstone of rural welfare.

Addressing villagers and MNREGA workers, Ms. Sharmila said ‘Upaadi Haami,’ as MNREGA is popularly known in Andhra Pradesh, had empowered rural households by ensuring dignified work and timely wages. She cautioned that recent policy changes posed a threat to this hard-earned right.

Expressing concern over what she described as attempts by the Narendra Modi government to dilute MNREGA through the introduction of the VB Gram G initiative, Ms. Sharmila said that while MNREGA guarantees the right to work by law, the new initiative does not assure employment to the needy, thereby weakening job security.

“MNREGA was born in Bandlapalle as a promise to the rural poor. Diluting a guaranteed right and replacing it with uncertain schemes is an attack on the livelihoods of millions. Through this yatra, we will take the voice of Upaadi Haami workers to every corner of Andhra Pradesh,” she said.