NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Friday took out a march here in Lutyens' Delhi under “MGNREGA Bachao Sangram” to protest against the scrapping of the scheme.
The march, led by Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav, was started from the Congress office at 24, Akbar Road, to the Gandhi Smriti against. However, the protesters were stopped by the police from going to Gandhi Smriti. Police detained several Congress workers, including Yadav, and took them to Kapashera police station where they were later released.
Yadav said that the Congress party had implemented Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to guarantee employment to the villagers in India so that every poor citizen of the country could become economically strong.
He stated that in the struggle to save MGNREGA, the Congress workers are unitedly fighting to bring it back.
The Modi government snatched away the right of crores of people of the country to earn minimum wages, guaranteed work round the year, work with freedom and self-respect, Yadav alleged.
“We have to fight a long battle for the return of MGNREGA and the Modi government will have to re-implement the scheme which will ensure employment to crores of rural people. MGNREGA is not just a scheme but the right to give bread to the rural people with dignity and respect which was implemented by the Congress government. Abolishing such a scheme is definitely anti-national and anti-poor,” he stated.
Yadav claimed that the central government has now snatched away the power of the gram panchayat to give employment under MNREGA, as the wages now will be fixed arbitrarily and the guarantee to increase it every year has also been removed.
The Union government’s Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB-G RAM G), was passed by both houses amid opposition uproar and received presidential assent in December 2025, effectively replacing MGNREGA after two decades.
Under the new law, the statutory guarantee of employment was increased on paper from 100 to 125 days per rural household each year, and changes were made in funding patterns, planning mechanisms and implementation structures.