Congress calls MGNREGA replacement a ‘surgical strike’ on rural safety net

• Congress called the replacement of MGNREGA a “surgical strike” on rural India’s social safety net amid drought in Maharashtra

• Jairam Ramesh cited a report alleging that workers were listed as employed under VB-G RAM G despite no labourers being found at five sites in Beed

• The party alleged systematic diversion of wages and renewed its criticism of technology-driven exclusion and weakened gram panchayats

The Congress on Tuesday described the replacement of MGNREGA as a “surgical strike” on rural India’s social safety net, citing reported discrepancies between employment records and work on the ground in drought-hit Maharashtra.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh referred to a media investigation which, he said, found no workers at five sites in Beed despite records showing thousands employed under the VB-G RAM G scheme.

In a post on X, Ramesh said Beed and other Maharashtra districts were facing their worst drought in a decade, making access to guaranteed employment particularly critical.

“MGNREGA was the guarantee of support in such times of extreme distress,” he said, arguing that its replacement had undermined protection for vulnerable rural households.

According to Ramesh’s account of the investigation, many villagers had received no work for months even though official records listed them as employed. He alleged that local politicians were pocketing wages recorded against their names and suggested that those involved belonged to the ruling party.

The claims concern an alleged gap between recorded attendance and actual employment, raising questions about whether payments were reaching the workers entitled to them.

Ramesh also pointed to media reports of fake attendance and clone-app scams in Uttar Pradesh and other BJP-governed states, alleging a wider pattern of wage diversion.

“This is not just corruption, but systemic theft of workers’ wages,” he said. Using the Congress’s “vote chori” slogan, he accused the government of also perfecting “gramin mazdoori chori”, or theft of rural workers’ wages.

The remarks followed the party’s criticism last week of the new rural employment framework. Congress had argued that the VB-G RAM Act would deepen technology-driven exclusion, concentrate decision-making and weaken gram panchayats.

The party also attacked the BJP over reported attendance fraud under the scheme, accusing it of undermining the rights of poor households while invoking Lord Ram’s name.

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act came into force nationwide on 1 July, replacing MGNREGA, the rural employment guarantee legislation introduced two decades earlier by the Congress-led UPA government.

The material cited did not include a response from the Centre or Maharashtra government to the allegations.

With IANS inputs