Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and said the present state of the scheme is a living monument of his “betrayal” to rural India.

The Congress chief in a post on X wrote, “In 2005, on this day, our Congress-United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government enacted Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to ensure ‘Right to Work’ to crores of people in rural India.

Pointing out that presently there are 13.3 crore active workers who depend on MGNREGA, he alleged despite low wages, abysmal work-days, they are facing deletion of job cards.

Attacking the BJP-led government at the Centre, Kharge said, “In the guise of using technology and AADHAAR, the Modi government has deleted over 7 crore workers’ job cards, cutting these households off from MGNREGA work.”

Referring to the Union Budget, he said, “This year’s Budget allocation for MGNREGA is just 1.78 per cent of the total budgetary allocation, which marks a 10-year low in the scheme’s funding.”

“The lower allocation by the Modi government contributes in artificially suppressing the demand for work under the scheme. The Economic Survey has already laid the groundwork to justify the low allocation, by claiming that MGNREGA demand does not necessarily correlate with rural distress,” the Congress chief said.

Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said, “Recent Parliamentary Standing Committee report has said that the daily wages paid under the MGNREGA are inadequate. For instance, since 2014, the daily wage rate for Uttar Pradesh has increased just 4 per cent per year, when inflation has been much higher than that. Today a labourer earns on an average a mere Rs 213 per day.”

He said the Congress is committed to provide Rs 400 per day as national minimum wage.

“Even though Rural Inflation is higher than Urban Inflation for 13 straight months, Modi government’s apathy towards rural poor continues,” Kharge said.

The Congress chief added, “The present state of MGNREGA is a living monument of PM Modi’s betrayal to rural India.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Congress MP Rajeev Shukla said, “Today, reminiscing the historic moment when the empowering and epic legislation MGNREGA was passed by the UPA Government 19 years back.”

He said It still stands as a testament to the power of collective effort in ensuring livelihood security and dignity for every citizen.