New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday for his “U-turn” on the MGNREGA scheme, and thanked him for understanding its vision and allocating an additional budget of Rs 40,000 crore for it.
“The prime minister has approved an additional budget of Rs 40,000 crore for the MNREGA scheme created during the UPA era. We express our gratitude to him for understanding the vision of MNREGA and promoting it,” he said in a tweet in Hindi. Gandhi also used the hashtag — “ModiUturnOnMNREGA” — while putting out a video clip of the prime minister’s speech in Parliament after he assumed power in 2014.
“MGNREGA is a living monument of your failures,” Modi had said about the scheme in his speech in Parliament, while noting that even after 60 years of independence, the Congress had to send people to dig up ditches. Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram also recalled how Modi after becoming prime minister had said in Parliament that “I will not continue MGNREGA, it is a monumental Congress failure”.
“So, his words will come back to haunt them, what they called a monumental failure of the Congress’ government, this is now the safety net for the poor of this country,” he said.
The Congress leader also said at the moment MGNREGA is the only carrot they have to dangle before migrant workers.
Welcoming the move to add Rs 40,000 crore to MGNREGA, Chidambaram hoped the new MGNREGA work that has been created in villages will be both for the migrant labourers, who have returned, as well as the people who have stayed back in villages. (PTI)
