Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 14 (UNI) AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal MP has called upon the Kerala Legislative Assembly to pass a resolution demanding the restoration of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) in its original form, strongly opposing the Centre’s recent amendments.
Elaborating on the issue, Venugopal said the Kerala government should emulate Telangana and Karnataka, where decisive steps were taken against the Centre’s move.
The Telangana Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution seeking the withdrawal of the new employment guarantee law, while the Karnataka government convened a special Assembly session to deliberate on the matter.
Similar initiatives, including the convening of gram sabhas, should also be undertaken in Kerala, he said.
Venugopal accused the Modi government of weakening MGNREGA through legislative changes that diluted its core spirit and violated federal principles. The amendments, he alleged, were pushed through without meaningful discussion and shifted powers from local self-government institutions to the Centre.
Changes in wage-sharing patterns and the introduction of biometric conditions were aimed at excluding workers from the scheme. Renaming the programme, he added, reflected an attempt to undermine Gandhian values in line with the RSS agenda.
Responding to criticism against UDF MPs, Venugopal said there had not been a single Parliament session in which MPs from the UDF failed to raise issues concerning Kerala. A comparison between the performance of Left MPs and UDF MPs would make this evident, he said.
He said the KPCC-led day-and-night protest in front of Raj Bhavan was being organised against what the Congress termed an assault on the employment rights of the rural poor.
