CPM opposes changes to MGNREGS, condemns ‘majoritarian’ law-making

CHENNAI: CPM State secretary P Shanmugam on Tuesday strongly opposed the Union government’s proposed amendments to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, alleging that the changes would effectively dismantle the 100-day employment scheme that supports crores of rural households.

In a video message posted on social media, Shanmugam said the Union Cabinet had approved a move to replace the existing Act with a new scheme under a different name, which he described as unacceptable. He recalled that the Employment Guarantee Law was enacted in 2005 during the UPA regime, with the support of Left parties, and had since become a crucial livelihood and poverty-alleviation measure in rural India.

He accused the BJP-led Union government of weakening the scheme over the past decade by cutting allocations, reducing workdays, delaying wage payments and shrinking beneficiary coverage, forcing many rural workers to drop out. In several villages, he said, employment had fallen from the assured 100 days to barely 10 or 20 days a year.

Shanmugam criticised the proposal to remove Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme and to alter the funding pattern by reducing the Centre’s share to 60 per cent and increasing the States’ burden to 40 per cent, while retaining decision-making powers with the Union government. He warned that this would place severe financial strain on States, particularly non-BJP-ruled States, and ultimately hurt rural workers.

He also objected to provisions that, he said, diluted the legal guarantee of employment by making work subject to official discretion, thereby denying workers the right to demand jobs or unemployment allowance.

Calling for nationwide protests, he urged rural workers and beneficiaries to unite, drawing parallels with the agitation that led to the repeal of the farm laws. He said the CPM would lead sustained protests until the proposed amendments were withdrawn.