CPI(M) chief Brinda Karat. File
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The Modi authorities is waging an undeclared war on the authorized and constitutional rights of the rural poor, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat stated, addressing a press convention in solidarity of the MGNREGA staff who’ve been sitting on a 100-day protest at Jantar Mantar towards extra hindrances put up by the federal government in implementation of the programme.
Ms. Karat stated that the foremost step on their [government’s] agenda is to “dismantle many of the laws, which were enacted through decades of struggle.” The solely motive the federal government has been unable to fully remove the regulation, she stated, is as a result of off the authorized mandate it has.
There are three main areas of concern in the implementation of MGNREGA — current price range reduce of 33%, turning away staff who demand work and dismal wages supplied below the programme.
The budgetary reduce, she stated, must be learn together with the tax insurance policies of the federal government. “The tax policies are favouring the 1% of the rich of this country who control 40% of the country’s wealth. The government has not come up with a single paisa of extra tax in this budget. Then, you make the poor suffer by saying we don’t have enough revenue, we have to control our deficit. If this is not criminal, I don’t know what is,” she stated.
The authorities narrative that funds might be made accessible in keeping with the demand is a lie, Ms. Karat asserted, citing numbers. In monetary 12 months 2019-20, 1.5 crore staff who demanded work had been turned away; this determine went as much as 2.1 crore in 2020-21, 1.7 crore in 2021-22 and 1.6 crore in 2022-23. “This myth of the government that we are giving work as per demand is nothing but lie and the government figures themselves show that crores of workers are being turned away,” she stated.
Ms. Karat additionally underlined the necessity to revise the typical nationwide wage fee, which at present is at ₹218, far under the market charges. “You are exploiting the labour of the poor with such dismal rates,” she added.
Food rights activist Anjali Bharadwaj, who additionally addressed the press convention, highlighted the alarming ranges of unemployment within the nation, which solely turned worse after the pandemic. Runaway inflation is additional victimising the nation’s poor. Yet the Centre is pushing the narrative that every one is properly, she stated.
