Sharmila Calls Statewide Protests to Restore MGNREGA

APCC president Y.S. Sharmila on Wednesday announced that State-wide protests would be held across Andhra Pradesh, following a call by the All India Congress Committee, demanding the immediate restoration of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

In a post on X, Ms. Sharmila said Andhra Pradesh was the birthplace of MGNREGA and accused the BJP-led NDA government of weakening a flagship welfare programme envisioned and successfully implemented under former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

She said the scheme, launched in the State in 2006, later emerged as a national model for rural employment, drought mitigation, and livelihood security. Over the past two decades, Andhra Pradesh has been said to have received nearly Rs 1 lakh crore under MGNREGA, employing about one crore people every year. She attributed this impact to the Congress-enacted NREGA law.

Ms. Sharmila alleged that the NDA government had diluted the scheme through policy changes and the introduction of a new framework referred to as the VBG RAMJI Act. She said the original law guaranteed 100 days of employment as a legal right, empowered gram sabhas to decide works, and ensured full Central funding of wages.

In contrast, she claimed, the new framework centralised decision-making, reduced employment to 60 days, and shifted 40 per cent of the financial burden to States. She also alleged that it promoted contractor-driven works, undermining decentralisation.

Describing the changes as anti-poor and an attack on Gram Swaraj, Ms. Sharmila demanded the immediate withdrawal of the new framework and the restoration of MGNREGA in its original form.