CHENNAI: Condemning what it described as sustained attempts by the BJP-led union government to dilute the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) organised a massive padayatra in Chennai on Thursday, in line with the directions of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
Leading the march, TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai said the MGNREGA, enacted in 2005 by the Congress-led UPA government, was a landmark welfare legislation that provided livelihood security to millions of poor and marginalised rural households. He alleged that the central government was systematically weakening the scheme by cutting budgetary allocations, delaying wage payments and diluting its core provisions.
The padayatra, held as part of the second phase of the statewide agitation, began near the statue of former CM K Kamaraj at the Bharatha Matha Road-Velachery Main Road junction in East Tambaram. It passed through Velachery Main Road, the MCC College, Tambaram flyover, Mudichur Road, Krishna Roundana, Gandhi Road, Vidya Theatre Road and Ramakrishnan Road before concluding at the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Muthu Ranga Park on Shanmugam Road in West Tambaram.
AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and Telangana Deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka inaugurated the padayatra. Congress Assembly floor leader S Rajesh Kumar, AICC TN in-charge Girish Chodankar and several senior party leaders participated.