Chennai, 20 December (H.S.) : Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK has intensified its criticism of the BJP led Central government over the newly passed Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin Bill.
In an editorial published in the party mouthpiece Murasoli, the DMK asserted that the removal of Mahatma Gandhi's name from the employment guarantee scheme is just one aspect of a larger problem.
The party claimed that the new legislation effectively defeats the core objective of the job guarantee program and contains provisions that could facilitate the complete scrapping of the scheme at any given time by citing specific data.
The DMK listed ten major reasons for opposing the bill, highlighting that the proposed sixty to forty cost sharing ratio between the Centre and states represents an unfair burden on state funds. The editorial pointed out that the bill lacks a concrete guarantee for one hundred twenty-five days of work and excludes periods of peak agricultural activity, which would negatively impact those not involved in farming.
Furthermore, the party expressed concern that using the Centre's Multidimensional Poverty Index to enlist beneficiaries could disadvantage states like Tamil Nadu that have made significant strides in poverty reduction. The DMK warned that the Centre could arbitrarily stop the scheme by claiming poverty has been eliminated based on selected data.
The ruling party also criticized the shift from a rights based approach to one where jobs are provided only if available. According to the DMK, the new framework undermines federalism and state autonomy by allowing the Centre to dictate job allocations for each state, potentially leading to the neglect of non-BJP ruled states.
Additionally, the party noted that unlike the previous MGNREGA, the new bill offers no compensation if work cannot be provided. The editorial concluded by questioning the stance of AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami, accusing him of only focusing on the name change while ignoring the detrimental structural changes within the bill.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Dr. R. B. Chaudhary
