CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party held protests on Thursday against the Union government’s amendment of the MGNREGA scheme.
The Congress launched the first phase of the ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ announced by the party to seek the revival of the rural employment guarantee scheme.
The party leaders reiterated their resolve to force the BJP-led government at the Centre to revive MGNREGA and withdraw the new ‘VB-G RAM G’ Act, just as it was forced to withdraw the three controversial farm laws.
Speaking at a rally in Gurdaspur, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress general secretary in charge of Punjab, Bhupesh Baghel said it was only the Congress that had consistently taken decisions in favour of working people and marginalised sections of society.
He pointed out that MGNREGA, launched by the Congress government in 2005 under the guidance of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, was not only recognised within the country but also praised worldwide as a pro-poor scheme.
He also took a dig at the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government, calling it the BJP’s B-team. He added that the AAP government had failed to provide even 10 per cent of the share it was required to contribute to provide jobs for the rural poor.
Congress leader and Punjab Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa accused both the BJP and AAP of jointly undermining the constitutional right to work, federalism, and the dignity of the poor.
He recalled that nearly two decades ago, India took a historic step by enacting MGNREGA, not as a charity-driven welfare scheme, but as a legal right guaranteeing work, wages, and dignity to rural households, particularly Dalits and women.
He added that the law was the outcome of a year-long consultative process involving workers’ unions, social movements, economists, Parliament, and the Prime Minister’s Office, and that it enjoyed rare bipartisan consensus.
“That consensus was clear and unambiguous—work is not charity, work is a right,” Bajwa said.
He accused the Centre of systematically weakening this constitutional right since 2014 through chronic underfunding, delayed wage payments, and administrative hurdles. Despite rising demand for work, allocations have stagnated, wage arrears have piled up, and the average number of workdays has fallen well below the statutory guarantee.
“This is not an administrative lapse; it is a deliberate strategy to hollow out a rights-based law,” Bajwa said.
He also criticised the AAP-led government in Punjab for holding what he described as stage-managed special sessions of the Vidhan Sabha.
“The AAP has reduced the assembly to optics. These sessions are meant for headlines, not accountability. Critical issues like the dilution of MGNREGA require serious debate, scrutiny and legislative action—not symbolism,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had shown hostility towards MGNREGA from the very beginning and had described it as a failure.
Taking a dig at the BJP’s claim of providing 125 workdays under the new scheme, he said the total implementation of MGNREGA, which guarantees 100 days of work, stood at just 48 per cent.
In Punjab, he said, the figure was not even one per cent under the AAP government. “When you cannot even provide 50 work days, how can anyone believe you when you say that you will be guaranteeing 125 work days?” he asked.
Asserting that the AAP was no different from the BJP, Warring also criticised the Vidhan Sabha session and passing resolution against the scrapping of the MGNREGA.
“What did it achieve on the ground?” he asked, adding that the AAP government should have announced at least Rs 4000 crore from its own resources to provide work to the rural poor in Punjab.
“But what can we expect from a government that has added to the state’s debt burden, taking the overall debt to Rs 4.5 lakh crore,” he said, adding that the AAP government had done little beyond lip service.
Meanwhile, the AAP also staged a massive protest at Patiala Gate in Nabha, with MGNREGA workers taking part.
Protesters raised slogans against the Centre and burned an effigy of PM Modi to express anger over the anti-poor changes to the flagship employment guarantee scheme.
Talking to the media, AAP MLA Gurdev Singh Dev Maan said that while the Centre may change the name of MGNREGA if it wishes, what is unacceptable is the complete change in its policy and intent.
“The Modi government has altered the very soul of MGNREGA. Its new policies are aimed at crushing the poor, strangling their livelihoods and pushing them deeper into poverty,” Maan said.
He accused the Centre of betraying the very people who have built the nation with their hard labour.
“From roads and fields to towering buildings, from needles to aircraft, this country is built by workers. Yet, today, the same workers are being attacked. Those who formed governments by taking votes from the poor since 1947 are now punishing them,” he added.
He also strongly opposed the Centre’s decision to shift 40 percent of MGNREGA burden onto states, calling it “completely unjustified and anti-federal.”
“How will states bear this additional burden? This is a direct assault on the federal structure and an attempt to weaken welfare schemes,” he added.
