Over 3,700 cadre of various political parties affiliated to Secular Progressive Alliance staged a protest against what they called the BJP-led Union Government’s attempt to dilute Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, at 11 places across Virudhunagar district.
MLAs, A.R.R. Srinivasan, S. Thangapandian, S. Ashokan and A.R.R. Raghuraman, were among those who took part in the protest held at different places.
“Removing the name of Mahatma Gandhi from the name of of the scheme shows the hatred of BJP against the Father of the Nation,” said Virudhunagar district secretary of All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, M. Sundara Pandian.
Work for rural people of Tamil Nadu has already been reduced to 40 to 50 days with the reduced allocation of funds by the Union Government.
“Since, under the amended law the allocation of funds for the scheme by the Centre has been reduced to 60% and State Governments have been mandated to contribute the remaining 40%. Though the number of working days has been increased from 100 days a year to 125 days a year, the number of days of jobs is all set to be drastically reduced in the coming years,” he said.
This is also because the critical aspect of the MNREGA scheme which guaranteed job to the rural people upon demand has been changed to need-based.
Besides, the jobs that were available to the elderly people, aged widows and differently-abled which provided them livelihood would become a thing of the past, he alleged.
Cadre of Congress, CPI (M), CPI, VCK were among those who took part in the protest.
Published – December 24, 2025 08:52 pm IST
