Centre, Tel implementing MGNREGA scheme in erratic manner:Cong

Telangana Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy today slammed the Central and the state governments over "erratic" implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) scheme.
Addressing an event here, Reddy said, as a senior MLA, he has observed and compared the conditions that prevailed in rural areas before and after the implementation of the NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), a party release said.
He said NREGS was a "revolutionary scheme" which improved lives of crores people in thousands of villages in the country and provided the right to work to the poorest of poor citizens in rural areas.

"However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been trying to dilute the scheme and by delaying payments to the MGNREGS workers, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's government was killing the actual purpose of its inception," Reddy alleged.
He alleged the TRS government has not cleared the payments of MGNREGA workers for the last several months.
"The TRS government has been violating the provisions of the NREG Act without even considering its negative impact on rural poor. As against the law for clearing the payments within 15 days, MGNREGS workers have been denied payments since the last four months," he claimed.

Reddy said the issues concerning NREGS workers would be raised in the Telangana Assembly and Council by the Congress legislators.

Earlier today, AICC incharge of Telangana R C Khuntia said that the BJP government at the Centre has been trying to curb the activities and rights of trade unions to promote a select few companies.
Stating that there was an urgent need to mobilise the workers in unorganised sectors, he said besides NREGS workers, people serving as Anganwadi workers, non-formal teachers, Health Mission workers, Beedi workers, etc.need to be mobilised.
Khuntia said the previous UPA government had made several laws like Vendors Act, 2014, to protect the rights of workers in unorganised sector.

He said there were several laws like Building Workers Act, 1995, in existence that could benefit crores of workers in unorganised sectors if implemented properly.
The Congress leader also stressed the need to resolve the problems being faced by migrant workers, the release added.