NEW DELHI: A day after Congress announced that the nationwide ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ will be conducted from Jan 8 to Feb 25, rural development minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called the opposition party’s campaign a ‘Bhrashtachaar Bachao Sangram’ and accused Congress of spreading misinformation and falsehoods on Viksit Bharat- Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act.Addressing a press conference in the capital, Chouhan alleged that corruption was rampant in MGNREGA and claimed that ‘VB-G RAM G’ scheme is better and several steps ahead of MGNREGA. “MGNREGA had ceased to be a symbol of honest employment. More than 1.091 million complaints were registered through social audits conducted in gram sabhas,” he pointed out.The minister highlighted that contractors were carrying out work in the name of labourers, wages were withdrawn by showing machine-based work and the same roads were shown as ‘new’ year-after-year. He also highlighted that around 30% of workers were above 60; instances of 80-year-old “labourers” and fake attendance records were also found.”Over Rs 8.48 lakh crore has been spent on rural development so far under Modi govt, compared to only Rs 2 lakh crore during UPA regime,” Chouhan said. He also questioned if permanent assets were created in villages and the lives of villagers and workers truly improved because of money spent by the earlier regime. Chouhan said ‘VB-G RAM G’ is a “corruption-free, technology-driven and worker-centric reform”. The focus now will be on concrete development works such as water conservation, roads, schools, hospitals and natural disaster management. He said this is not the time for agitation but for cooperation and “Congress should stop misleading the nation and spreading falsehoods”.Meanwhile, Congress on Sunday announced the setting up of a coordination committee to “oversee, guide and monitor implementation of ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’, with senior party functionary Ajay Maken as its convenor. The nationwide campaign will demand withdrawal of VB G RAM G Act, restoration of MGNREGA as a rights-based law, and right to work and empowerment of panchayats. Senior Congress functionaries Jairam Ramesh, Sandeep Dikshit, Udit Raj and Priyank Kharge are members of the panel constituted by party president Malikarjun Kharge.
