Tens of thousands people have attended the ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ rallies organized by the Punjab Congress at various places so far. Rallies were held in Bhucho Mandi and Bagha Purana falling in Bathinda and Moga districts.
Speaking on the occasion, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab Bhupesh Baghel said that Punjab had set the tone for “MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ across the country. He said, Punjab was the first state to stage the rallies against the scrapping of the MGNREGA and the programmes went off quite well.
Baghel predicted that the VB GRAMG law will meet the same fate as that of three farm laws, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to withdraw with due apologies to the farmers. He said, like the three agriculture laws were against farmers, the new VB GRAMG law is against the labourers.
The Congress general secretary said, while the farmers were an organized force, they led the strong agitation which was also supported by the Congress thus forcing Prime Minister Modi to withdraw those laws. He said, since the MGNREGA workers are not organized, the Congress party decided to fight their battle and force the BJP government to withdraw the new law and restore the MGNREGA.
Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said that Prime Minister Modi had snatched away the livelihood of crores of marginalized sections of the society living in rural areas across the country. He noted that MGNREGA guaranteed respectable employment to the rural poor within the vicinity of their villages.
But now, he added, even marking the attendance is a tedious process for the MGNREGA labourers, leave aside getting the work. He said, the intention of the BJP government seems to be clear to deny the marginalized sections a respectable living. “Otherwise why would they need to scrap the MGNREGA which had been globally acknowledged pro-poor law”, he added.
Leader of the opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa said that the BJP government had repeatedly shown its anti-people face time and again. He accused the AAP of secretly having an understanding with the BJP as except for the token protest the party or its government had not done anything to help the MGNREGA workers.
Bajwa recalled how the Congress leadership including Ms Sonia Gandhi and then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had enacted special law to provide guaranteed work to the marginalized sections of the society living in rural areas. He said, the MGNREGA was the lifeline for the rural poor and this lifeline was being choked by the callous and insensitive BJP which had no concern for the poor.
Bajwa promised that once the Congress government gets formed in Punjab in 2027, it will make special provision for providing guaranteed jobs to the rural poor in accordance with the MGNREGA.
Among those present included Ravindra Dalvi, Dr Amar Singh, Sher Singh Ghubaya, Pargat Singh, Hardev Singh Laddi, Pritam Singh Kotbhai, Rajan Garg, Gurpreet Kangar EX MLA, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot EX Minister, Jeet Mohinder Sidhu EX MLA, Khushbaj Singh Jatana, Jashan Chahal, Bikram Singh Mofar, Parkash Singh Bhatti, Navdeep Babbu Brar, Shubhdeep Bittu, Arshdeep Singh Gagowal, Harcharan Singh Sotha, Rupinder Kaur Ruby, Jagdev Singh Kamalu, Gura Singh Tung, Avtar Singh Goniana, Kiranjit Kaur, Narinder Singh Kauni, Master Baldev Singh Jaitu, KK Agarwal, Arun Wadhawan, Kiranjit Singh Gehri, Balwant Rai Nath, Tehal Singh Sandhu, Malkeet Singh Dakha, Jagdev Singh Kamalu, Jagtar Singh Hisowal, Sukhjit Singh Kaka Lohgarh, Jagsir Singh Bagha Purana, Major Singh Mullanpur, Hari Singh Khai and others.
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