Centre, State govt nullifying MGNREGS: Uttam

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday slammed the BJP government at the Centre and TRS government in Telangana State for erratic implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of a 5-day training programme for organising informal and agriculture workers organised by Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in collaboration with International Trade Unions Confederation (ITUC) at Dr GSR Institute of Labour Studies and Research here on Monday. Uttam Kumar Reddy said MGNREGS was a well-thought of scheme which provided right to work to the poorest of poor in rural areas. 

He said the scheme was launched on a massive scale which covered about 2.5 lakh villages in 674 districts. Besides ensuring their livelihood, it also increased their purchasing power. He said MGNREGS was a revolutionary scheme which improved crores of lives in thousands of villages in the country. 

However, he said Narender Modi's government was trying to dilute the scheme and by delaying payments to the MGNREGS workers. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s government was nullifying the actual purpose of its inception, he alleged. The TPCC chief said contrary to the claims of being the richest State in the country, the TRS government had not cleared the payments of MGNREGS workers for the last several months.