politics
The decision taken by the NDA government at the Centre to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has triggered a political uproar across the country. The scheme, which has so far been implemented under Mahatma Gandhi’s name, is proposed to be continued with a new name “Viksit Bharat Rozgar – Aajeevika Guarantee Mission (Grameen)”. The Congress party has strongly opposed this move.
As part of its protest, the Congress has decided to launch a major agitation at a place that holds historical significance for the scheme. A large protest programme is scheduled to be held on February 2 at Bandlapalli village in the Singanamala Assembly constituency of Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh.
Senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Mallikarjun Kharge are expected to participate in the protest. The demonstration is aimed at opposing what the party describes as the Centre’s attempts to weaken the employment guarantee scheme.
It is noteworthy that while the employment guarantee scheme was launched at the national level in 2005, it was first implemented in Andhra Pradesh on February 2, 2006, in Anantapur district. The programme was inaugurated during the tenure of then Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, with the scheme being formally launched by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Nearly 20 years later, the Congress has chosen the same date and the same village to organise a protest against the renaming of the scheme. Political observers believe that this agitation could intensify the national-level debate on the future of the rural employment guarantee programme.
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