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

Celebrating 20 years of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), AP Congress Committee president YS Sharmila Reddy on Monday organized a Rachabanda program at Bandlapalle village, the historical place where MNREGA was launched on February 2, 2006. He also inaugurated the ‘Upaadi Haami Parirakshana Yatra’, a state-wide outreach initiative from Bandlapalle.

The yatra aims to mobilize rural communities, MNREGA workers and job card holders to protect the employment guarantee programme, which has provided livelihood security to dozens of families and remains the cornerstone of rural prosperity.

Addressing the villagers and MNREGA workers, Ms. Sharmila said that MNREGA’s ‘Upaadi Haami’, as it is widely known in Andhra Pradesh, empowers rural households by ensuring dignified work and on-time wages. He warned that recent policy changes pose a threat to these hard-won rights.

Expressing concern over what she described as attempts by the Narendra Modi government to dilute MNREGA by launching the VB Gram G initiative, Ms. Sharmila said that although MNREGA guarantees the right to work by law, the new initiative does not guarantee employment to the needy, thus weakening job security.

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