One-day special session of Punjab Assembly likely to be stormy affair

Chandigarh: A one-day special session of the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday is likely to be a stormy affair with the AAP government set to bring a resolution against the VB-G RAM G Act while opposition parties will corner the Bhagwant Mann government for "failing" to provide 100 days of work under the MGNREGA in the state.

The AAP government has called the special session against the VB-G RAM G Act.

According to the list of business, the session will commence at 11 am with tributes to the unparalleled martyrdom of four Sahibzadas of Guru Gobind Singh and obituary references.

Thereafter, an official resolution will be moved by the rural development and panchayat minister against the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act.

Three Bills are also likely to be tabled in the House, as per the business.

According to AAP leaders, the VB-G RAM G Act was another "black law" that directly attacks the livelihood of millions of MGNREGA labourers and shifts the financial burden onto states.

The new scheme will severely impact below-poverty-line families, Scheduled Caste communities, and rural labourers who depend on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for survival, the AAP leaders said.

The VB-G RAM G Act replaced the existing rural employment law, the MGNREGA, and it guarantees 125 days of wage employment per rural household per financial year.

According to the union government, the new scheme aims to establish a rural development framework aligned with the national vision of 'Viksit Bharat 2047'.

Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Monday called the special session just an "eyewash", saying the ruling AAP had "betrayed" the rural poor already by failing to provide 100 days of work under MGNREGA.

He said in Punjab, only 42 percent work was provided under MGNREGA under the AAP rule.

He said this was because of the "inefficiency" of the government, which could not provide the 10 per cent matching grant to the 90 per cent grant provided by the Centre till now.

Criticising the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in the state for its "failure" to provide work under MGNREGA, Warring said now the state government was trying to hide behind the new law of the BJP.

He said the new law will be more "devastating" for Punjab as now the state will have to provide 40 per cent share against 10 per cent earlier.

"When the AAP government could not provide 10 per cent, how can it provide 40 percent" he asked, while asserting that the AAP cannot escape the responsibility of its own "failures" with its token resistance like holding a special session of the Vidhan Sabha.

Punjab BJP working president Ashwani Sharma accused the AAP government of misusing the government machinery against the VB'“G RAM G Act.

He alleged that the AAP government is "misleading" MGNREGA workers and forcibly obtaining their signatures to oppose this law.

Sharma said even under the MGNREGA, the AAP government "completely failed" over the last three years to provide workers with 100 days of employment, yet the Chief Minister remains "completely silent on this serious failure".

Sharma said as per the MGNREGA Act, the state government is legally bound to provide work within 15 days of a worker demanding employment.

If work is not provided, the unemployment allowance must be paid, he said.