HYDERABAD: Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka questioned what sin Mahatma Gandhi had committed for the BJP government at the Centre to remove his name from the employment guarantee scheme.
Addressing a public meeting in Chennai on Thursday after a padayatra led by the Tamil Nadu Pradesh Congress Committee, Vikramarka said the BJP government had not only removed Gandhi’s name from the scheme but had also stripped it of its core promise of guaranteed employment for agricultural labourers.
The deputy CM asked what sin crores of agricultural labourers across the country had committed for the BJP government to make such changes to the employment guarantee scheme.
With a humane perspective, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the then prime minister Manmohan Singh brought in the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Scheme for crores of agricultural labourers, he recalled.
Vikramarka said that until the BJP government at the Centre fully restores the MGNREGA, 2005, crores of Congress workers would continue an untiring struggle in support of agricultural labourers.
Whenever ordinary people face difficulties, Tamil Nadu had always stood in the front line, Vikramarka said and added that even now the state was commendable for standing in the front line in support of agricultural workers.
Tamil Nadu PCC president K Selvaperunthagai, AICC secretary Girish Chodankar and others were present.