TN Cong stages hunger strike protesting scrapping of MGNREGA scheme

Virudhunagar (Tamil Nadu), Jan 11 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Congress workers staged a hunger strike here on Sunday protesting against the Centre for discontinuing the MGNREGA scheme.

The protest near Virudhunagar railway station saw participation from Lok Sabha member B Manickam Tagore and Sivakasi MLA G Ashokan.

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, which replaces the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, enhances the statutory wage employment guarantee to 125 days (from 100 days under MGNREGA) per financial year for rural households.

The VB-G RAM G Bill was passed in Parliament during the recently concluded winter session amid vociferous protests by the opposition.

Tagore told reporters that the protest is part of the party's 45-day countrywide agitation to revive MGNREGA, with about seven lakh workers joining hunger strike.

"We will also engage villagers, demonstrate at collectorates, and gherao Lok Bhawans," he said, adding that all party members upholding Gandhian ideals are involved.

The Lok Sabha member criticised the new Act, effective April 1, for lacking job guarantees unlike MGNREGA, which provided 90 per cent central funding to local bodies for registered workers.

States must now contribute 40 per cent, risking scheme collapse, with jobs limited to select panchayats only, he noted.

Tagore said the scheme's true colours would emerge in two months. PTI JR JR KH