Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi alleged that the decision to abolish the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) was taken directly by the Prime Minister’s Office and while doing so, Cabinet and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was not consulted.
“MNREGA was not just a scheme, but it was a rights-based concept,” Gandhi told reporters after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting. Scrapping the scheme is an attack on this concept.” He alleged that the government’s move is an attack on the country’s federal structure and centralization of power and finance.
Rahul Gandhi said, ‘This decision has been taken without consulting the minister (Shivraj) and the cabinet and this decision was taken directly by the Prime Minister’s Office.’ He said, “‘One man show’ is going on, Modi does whatever he wants.”
The Parliament had approved the ‘Developed India-Ji Ram Ji Bill, 2025’ on December 18 amid the uproar of the opposition. After the assent of President Draupadi Murmu, this Act has now been enacted. It will replace the 20 year old MNREGA.