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Journalism of Courage
The 10th anniversary celebrations of MGNREGA Tuesday set off a political slugfest with the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) lashing out at the “mindset of the BJP” at an event here. The party said that it’d implement the UPA schemes in the party-run taluka and district panchayats in the state.
Congress leaders referred to Monday’s Supreme Court rap on knuckles for the Gujarat government in a PIL related to the implementation of the Food Security Bill and NREGA. Former party MLA, Siddharth Patel said, “The BJP believes that the country’s progress is based on the progress of industrialists, but the Congress believes that the country can progress only when the poor also progress. The UPA brought the food security bill to ensure that a poor family get its one day’s meal and a scheme like NREGA to generate employment. The UPA government spent close to Rs 49,700 crore to implement the NREGA scheme. Then, the BJP govt arrived, positioning itself as the epicenter of development. But Modi had opposed NREGA as the Gujarat CM and at the centre he tried to do away with NREGA, but failed due to protest. Unfortunately, in the last one year, the Modi government has less than half the allocated budget for NREGA, giving employment only to 4.59 crore people as against the 8 crore figure of employed youth during UPA regime.”
MLA Shailesh Parmar urged the party leaders to ensure that NREGA and other schemes introduced by the UPA government, during its term, are implemented in the district and taluka panchayats run by it. Lashing out at the ruling BJP in Gujarat, Parmar said, “The Congress has made inroads into the district and taluka panchayats where the schemes introduced for the poor by the UPA have not been implemented by the state government. Under NREGA, there is hardly any enrolment and even those who get enrolled do not receive the pay they deserve as per the policy because the taluka and district officers are corrupt. The Congress must direct the officers to implement the scheme and generate employment for the youth.”
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