Cong, INDIA bloc spreading misinformation on VB-G RAM G scheme: Haryana CM Saini

Chandigarh, Jan 5 (PTI) Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Monday accused the Congress and the opposition's INDIA bloc of spreading misinformation on the VB-G RAM G scheme.

Calling the Congress an expert in spreading lies, he alleged that the opposition is spreading misinformation.

If improvement is done in any scheme, Congress and INDI Alliance have a problem in that too, Saini told reporters here.

Saini also slammed the Bhagwant Mann dispensation in Punjab for bringing a resolution against the VB-G RAM G Act, calling it a "political resolution".

The Punjab Assembly on December 30, last year, had unanimously passed a resolution against the VB-G RAM G Act in the Vidhan Sabha, accusing the BJP-led Centre of "taking away" the livelihoods of the poor and Dalit labourers by scrapping MGNREGA under a "deliberate conspiracy".

Slamming the opposition, the chief minister said, "INDI Alliance has a problem, why is improvement in the scheme being made for the poor by the Narendra Modi government. If the opposition had any suggestions to give, they should have kept them in the Lok Sabha." "They stage a walkout. Even in Haryana Vidhan Sabha's winter session held recently, you saw that the Congress (which had brought a no-confidence motion against the Saini govt) themselves did not take part in the debate and staged a walkout," Saini said.

And then they go to people and spread misinformation, he said, attacking the opposition on the VB-G RAM G issue.

People of the country and the state have seen and understood Congress' face and character, he said.

Saini's attack on the opposition comes at a time when the Congress on Saturday announced a nationwide "MGNREGA Bachao Sangram" from January 10 to February 25 to demand the withdrawal of the VB G-RAM-G Act, and restoration of MGNREGA as a rights-based law, the right to work, and the authority of panchayats.

"I want to tell INDI Alliance people that they should tell the country's labourers and workers what facilities were available during their time (under the UPA govt), how corruption used to happen, how workers did not get due benefits," he said.

In this series of disinformation being spread, on December 30, in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, a resolution was passed, with an aim to mislead and spread lies among the people, Saini said.

A political resolution was brought in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, he alleged.

When Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited Punjab, many MGNREGA workers met him, and they complained that they are not getting their due and said contractors are embezzling the money, Saini.

Notably, Chouhan, on December 30, said the move to bring a resolution against the VB-G RAM G Act in the Punjab assembly was undemocratic and against the basic spirit of the Constitution, which reflected "blind opposition" politics.

Slamming the opposition for spreading misinformation on the VB-G RAM G scheme, the Haryana chief minister said, "This issue concerns crores of rural labourers, farmers and hardworking people, in which INDI Alliance people are spreading lies".

But the opposition's lies will not work now, people have seen through their plans, he said.

The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Bill, or VB-G RAM G, was passed, replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNEREGA) with a voice vote amid protests in the Rajya Sabha on December 18, last year, hours after the Lok Sabha cleared it.

On December 21, President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Bill, making it an Act, which seeks to replace the rural employment law, MGNREGA, guaranteeing 125 days of wage employment per rural household every financial year. PTI SUN SHS