Agriculture and rural workers on Friday held protests in several places across the country against the VB-G RAM G Act, which mandates states to bear 40 per cent of the expenses under the job scheme.
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) law would replace the existing Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which mandates states to bear less than 10 per cent of the expenses, while 90 per cent is borne by the Union government.
Workers under the Joint Platform of Agricultural and Rural Workers’ Unions and the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha took out rallies and held public meetings in villages of Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
In a statement, the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union said the protest was a result of anger accumulating among MGNREGA workers over years of mismanagement by the BJP government since 2014.
“For years, the wages of MGNREGA workers remained stagnant. The total number of person-days generated is reduced with each subsequent year. The fund allocated to MGNREGA since the BJP came to power remained abysmally low and even inefficient in clearing the piling backlog of payments,” the statement said.
It criticised the introduction of “exclusionary technology” such as the Aadhaar-based payment system, facial recognition, geo-tagging, and online attendance systems. These technologies led to the deletion of crores of workers in just a few years, it said.
“Because of the increased burden on states, the VB-G RAM G law will not be implemented properly in the states,” it said. It wanted a rollback of the law and the reinstatement of a strengthened MGNREGA.
With the introduction of the VB-G RAM G Act from July 1, the MGNREGA will cease to exist. The government has assured that the transition would be seamless and without disruption to workers.
“Ongoing works under MGNREGA as on June 30 shall be saved and carried over to the new framework seamlessly,” a government notification said.
