Indo-US trade deal may hurt Punjab’s farmers: Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa
Addressing a ‘MGNREGA Bachao’ rally here, the Congress leader said opening up the agriculture and dairy sectors to heavily subsidized foreign products would pose a serious threat to Punjab’s agricultural economy.
He also expressed concern over the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre’s replacement of MGNREGA with the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, claiming that turning a rights-based scheme into an allotment-driven scheme would weaken the livelihood security of the rural poor and impose an additional financial burden on the states.
Bajwa said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), enacted during former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure, guaranteed jobs and wages to millions of rural households and played an important role in alleviating poverty and empowering women and marginalized communities.
He said more than 20 lakh registered beneficiaries in Punjab are affiliated with rural employment schemes and most of them are from Scheduled Caste (SC) communities.
The Congressional leader said any reduction in guaranteed work would directly impact thousands of families whose income depends on it.
He urged both the Central and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab to protect farmers and workers in policy decisions and ensure that any trade agreement protects domestic agriculture and provides affordable prices to farmers.
