New Delhi, December 21 (). Union Minister Prahlad Joshi has termed Congress’s allegations regarding the ‘Developed India-Ji Ram Ji’ bill as completely baseless. While talking to the media, he said that Congress and some others are spreading false propaganda that this bill is not progressive and will reduce employment opportunities in rural areas. This claim is a complete lie.
Prahlad Joshi said that the real objective of the ‘Developed India-Ji Ram Ji’ bill is to strengthen rural India. This scheme not only increases employment opportunities but will also improve rural infrastructure. Under this bill, the number of days of employment has been increased from 100 to 125 days, due to which people living in villages will get more work and income.
The Union Minister also said that providing 125 days of employment will reduce migration from villages to cities. He assured that every work will be monitored by the concerned officers, so that transparency is maintained and the benefits of the schemes reach the right people.
Raising questions on the previous schemes, Prahlad Joshi said that till now more than Rs 2 lakh crore has been invested in MNREGA, but despite this, solid infrastructure could not be created.
He said that the intention of the present government is clear to create strong infrastructure in rural areas and to provide employment to the people in their villages so that they do not have to migrate.
Under the ‘Vikas Bharat-Ji Ram Ji’ bill, every rural family will be given at least 125 days of work. Employment will be provided through states and union territories. The central and state governments will share the expenditure on wages in the ratio of 60:40. Whereas for North-Eastern and Himalayan states this ratio has been kept at 90:10. In Union Territories without legislature, the entire cost will be borne by the Central Government.
Apart from this, if a person does not find employment within 15 days of seeking work, he will be given an allowance, the entire expense of which will be borne by the government. There is also a provision for a ‘no work’ window of 60 days in the scheme.
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VKU/VC