Left parties protest Centre’s proposed changes to MGNREGA

Raising concerns over the future of rural employment, Left parties staged a protest at the Gandhi statue near the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation on Monday, demanding that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act be continued in its original form.

Addressing the gathering, CPI district secretary S.K. Rahaman and CPI-M district secretariat member P. Mani said the Centre’s proposal to reduce allocations to States would weaken the scheme. They added that the move would impose an additional annual burden of about Rs 4,000 crore on the State and severely affect agricultural laborers and small farmers, increasing the risk of migration from villages to urban areas.

The speakers criticized Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan, both part of the NDA alliance, for remaining silent on the issue. They alleged that removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme was an insult to the Father of the Nation. They said MGNREGA had provided livelihood security to poor and marginalized sections by guaranteeing employment as a legal right.

Opposing the Centre’s move to rechristen the scheme as Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) and to reduce funding, the Left leaders said the changes would adversely affect poor beneficiaries. They alleged the move was intended to benefit corporate interests while depriving the poor of their rightful share and demanded that the scheme’s original name and structure be retained.

CPI district assistant secretaries K. Satyanarayana and P. Chandrasekhar, CPI district leader M. Krishna Rao, CPI-ML (Praja Poru) leader K. Deva and CPI district secretariat member M. Pydiraju were among those who took part in the protest.