The CPI(M) has protested against the National Democratic Alliance Government’s proposals to make changes to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Reacting to reports that Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has proposed to stop the legal guarantee under the Act and convert it into a scheme, the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) said any move to scrap or weaken the Act will be opposed.

The CPI(M) said the BJP had promised job creation during its election campaign and is now suggesting the elimination of the MGNREGA, the only legal guarantee for creation of jobs.

“The last years of the UPA Government had also seen MGNREGA become a hostage to fiscal considerations and funds were severely cut,” it said, adding that the Act must be strengthened by taking measures to ensure a minimum of hundred days’ work.

The party urged the Centre to protect the rights of the intended beneficiaries by ensuring implementation of all the clauses pertaining to wage payment, compensation for delayed payment and also unemployment allowance and to make available funds to pay the arrears with immediate effect.

CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said in a letter to Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari that appropriate measures should be taken to strengthen the Act. She urged him to ensure that the Act does not become hostage to fiscal considerations.

Karat said the changes proposed in Schedule 1 of Act neglect the basic issues being faced by the men and women working on MGNREGA sites. She said a shocking 60 per cent of the wages were not paid within the maximum of 15 days stipulated by the law.

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