DMK cadre stage protest against Union Government’s VB-G Ram G Act in Krishnagiri

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) cadre staged a protest in Krishnagiri on Wednesday against the Union government’s Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G Ram G) Act, which replaces the UPA government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme.

Alleging centralisation of powers with the Union Government, funding cuts to the States implementing the programme, the DMK-led protesters came down heavily on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government, which introduced the Bill last week and turned it into an Act on Wednesday.

The protesters drew a comparison between the UPA-led Union government, which introduced the scheme that guaranteed wages along with increasing allocation to States, and the current NDA-led government that has overhauled the rural employment guarantee programme and renamed it.

According to the party cadre, with the VB-G Ram G Act, the rural employment guarantee scheme in Tamil Nadu had come to a stop. The protesters alleged that the States would have to bear the burden of the funding, and that the number of workdays had been reduced to 60 under the new scheme . With the fall in the wage days, there will no money circulation in the local village economy, triggering a rural debt crisis, according to the DMK, whose protests here were led by the party’s district secretary and Bargur MLA D. Madhialagan