New Delhi : Civil society activists have raised serious objections to the central government’s “blatant” attempts to roll back the national rural job guarantee scheme and have written to the prime minister on the issue.
An open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed by several prominent public figures and organisations across different fields raises serious objection to the central government’s effort to undermine the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and divert it from its basic objectives.
Activists Friday claimed that the NDA government was trying to roll back the national rural job guarantee scheme.
Civil society activist and former member of the National Advisory Council Aruna Roy asserted that if the scheme is rolled back more than half of the country would be affected.
Forty percent of the households, which have benefited from the scheme, belong to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, she said.
She said that among the ways in which the government was trying to roll back the scheme was by converting it into a contractor-driven programme and by rationing funds.