BENGALURU: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has said that the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) law will be a burden on state governments.
The Union Government is killing the rural job guarantee initiative that Dr Manmohan Singh implemented through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Shivakumar told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
“By changing the Centre-State cost-sharing ratio in this scheme to 60:40, no state government, including BJP-ruled states, will be able to bear the burden. As a result, the scheme will completely fail in the future,” Shivakumar said.
Further, Shivakumar said that he did not expect the Modi-led government to drop Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme. Shivakumar said that the MGNREGA scheme was introduced with great effort by Dr Manmohan Singh to provide employment opportunities to rural households.
But the present government is systematically killing it, he said, adding that the UPA government had implemented MGNREGA constitutionally. “Constitution says right to work and right to live. The way the Centre is changing the scheme’s name it looks like it is the beginning of their final days,” Shivakumar said.
Meanwhile, RDPR and IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge chaired a round table meeting with all the stakeholders concerned and experts who have worked for formation, execution and effective implementation of MGNREGA over the past 20 years. The meeting was held at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi.
“In a first of its kind effort to channelise the actions after the unilateral repeal of MGNREGA by the Union Government, the Karnataka government has now spearheaded the process to oppose VB-G RAM G which aims to demolish local governance and demand based right of livelihood and employment through this productive meeting,” stated a press release from Minister Priyank Kharge’s office.
Shivakumar also met Priyank in Delhi and discussed “adverse financial impact” on the State Government due to the change in the Centre-State funding ratio under the renamed MGNREGA scheme from 90:10 to 60:40.