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BJP misleading people under guise of MGNREGA overhaul: Punjab finance minister
Cheema slammed the BJP leadership for citing the ‘Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj 2024-25’ to justify their actions
Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday accused the central government of deliberately misleading the public under the guise of a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) overhaul to push its anti-poor agenda, asserting that unpaid dues of ₹23,000 crore expose the reality behind the BJP’s claims.
Cheema said that by shifting 40% of the financial burden onto the states and hollowing out the rights-based structure of the scheme, the BJP government at the Centre has effectively liquidated the employment guarantee and weakened the federal framework.
“While the Punjab assembly stood firmly with workers against these moves, the Congress-led states chose silence,” the AAP leader claimed at a press conference, attacking both the BJP and its one-time INDIA alliance partner.
Cheema slammed the BJP leadership for citing the ‘Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj 2024-25’ to justify their actions. He claimed that the committee, chaired by Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, never recommended renaming the scheme based on religion or introducing restrictive changes; instead, it had called for the immediate release of pending funds.
He said the unpaid dues of over ₹23,000 crore include ₹12,219 crore in unpaid wages for labourers and ₹11,227 crore in material costs owed to panchayats for rural development projects.
Earlier, AAP Punjab chief spokesperson and MLA Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal accused the SAD of “silent complicity” in the central government’s attempt to systematically dismantle MGNREGA. He said that the AAP strongly opposed the bill in the Punjab Assembly and would not hesitate to take the fight to the streets. “The party is fully prepared to agitate. We will not allow this anti-poor bill to be implemented at any cost,” he declared.
