CPI urges Centre to retain MGNREGS, calls new rural jobs scheme

CHENNAI: CPI state secretary M Veerapandian on Thursday urged the BJP-led NDA government to continue the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), alleging that its replacement, the VB-G Ram G Scheme 2025, weakened workers' legal rights and imposed an unfair financial burden on states.

Veerapandian said MGNREGS, enacted in 2005, guaranteed registered rural households a legal right to 100 days of employment, but Tamil Nadu workers received only 43 to 52 days of work annually between 2021-22 and 2025-26.

Less than 5% of workers completed the full 100 days, he claimed, citing government data. Calling the Centre's promise of 125 days of employment under the new scheme "misleading", he said Tamil Nadu would require about Rs 30,096 crore to provide wages to 69.79 lakh beneficiary families, while the Centre had allocated only Rs 12,642 crore for 2026-27 and asked the state to contribute Rs 5,056 crore.

He also said Tamil Nadu had received only Rs 2,176.84 crore in the first instalment from the Centre's initial nationwide release of Rs 25,000 crore, arguing that the allocation was inadequate to provide 125 days of work at Rs 345 a day.

Referring to Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay's July 1 letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking continuation of MGNREGS, Veerapandian urged the Centre to retain and strengthen the scheme and fully fund 125 days of employment for every eligible worker.