Instead of shedding crocodile tears, Punjab should come out with own alternative: Warring
Punjab Newsline, Chandigarh-
Led by Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, hundreds of Congress workers today staged a massive protest in Kharar against the BJP government at the centre for scrapping the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
The protest is a statewide campaign launched by the Punjab Congress against the centre’s decision that will deny the dalits, the backwards and other marginalized sections of the society, 100 days of guaranteed work every year.
Addressing the dharna, Warring condemned the BJP government’s decision, saying it was not only authoritarian and dictatorial, but aimed at targeting the Dalits, the Backwards and other downtrodden sections of the society, who normally do not vote for the BJP.
The PCC president asked the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab to come up with an alternative scheme in the state, if it really wants to help the marginalized sections of the society.
“Instead of shedding crocodile tears, the state government should come out with its own scheme”, Warring asked the government, while adding that if the AAP government’s intentions were sincere it would make its own arrangements and not resort to token show for its “oxygen of publicity”.
Warring said, while the BJP’s anti-Dalit, and anti-backward stand is clear and well known, the AAP is no less as it follows in the footsteps of its A-team. He said the AAP government had already failed even in implementing the MGNREGA where it had to contribute only ten percent grants against 90 by the centre.
He said, with the centre having increased the state’s share from 10 percent to 40 percent, it will completely collapse in Punjab. “When the AAP government, due to the financial mess it has created, could not provide the ten percent share, how can we expect it to provide 40 percent share in the scheme?” he asked.
The PCC president said, despite AAP government’s utter all round failures, the Congress will stand by the government in its opposition to the scrapping of the MGNREGA. “We expect the government not to merely shed the crocodile tears over the killing of MGNREGA, but also come out with the alternatives”, he demanded.