Sonia urges Modi to use MNREGA without playing politics   

Congress  President Sonia Gandhi has urged the government to use MNREGA to help people of India. Sonia Gandhi has given her opinion in an article for a newspaper

1.Use MNREGA to help people:Sonia Gandhi

Congress President has written, this isn’t BJP vs Congress… use MNREGA to help people of India

"My appeal to government: MGNREGA is a powerful mechanism, please use it in the people’s time of need",she added

2.MNREGA is a powerful mechanism that can be helpful in this crisis

The MGNREGA has proved its worth because it continuously improved and evolved during the UPA years, Congress president said

3.MNREGA continuously evolved and improved during UPA years

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, is a shining example of a radical and rational systemic change. It is radical because it transferred power to the poorest of the poor and enabled them to escape hunger and deprivation.

4.MNREGA is a shining example of a radical and rational systematic change

It is rational because it puts money directly in the hands of those who need it most. It has proved its worth in the years it has been in existence, even enduring six years of a hostile government.

5. It puts money directly in the hands of tbose who need it most

A government that sought to denigrate it, undermine it, has come to reluctantly rely on it.

6.The government that undermined it, now comes to rely on it

Along with the Public Distribution System put in place by an earlier Congress government, it is the mainstay for our poorest and most vulnerable citizens in preventing starvation and destitution wherever implemented in letter and spirit, especially in today’s COVID-19 crisis.

7.MNREGA can prevent starvation and destitution in Covid crisis

Let us not forget that the notification of the MGNREGA in September 2005 as an act of Parliament came about because of a people’s movement after years of struggle by civil society.

8.MNREGA came into being after years of struggle by civil society

The Congress party listened to their voices and to those of the people. It became a commitment in our 2004 manifesto and those of us who pressed hardest for it are proud that the UPA government implemented it as soon as feasible.

9.UPA government was committed to the implementation of MNREGA

The idea was simple: Any citizen in rural India now had the legal right to demand work and was guaranteed 100 days of work with minimum wages provided by the government.

10.MNREGA gives all citizens in rural India the legal right to demand work

And it proved its worth very quickly — a grassroots, demand-driven, Right to Work programme, unprecedented in its scale and architecture, focused on poverty alleviation. Millions have been saved from hunger and worse in the 15 years since its inception.

11. Millions have been saved from hunger and worse in the 15 years since its inception.

On assuming office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi realised that shutting down the scheme was not practical. Instead, he sought to deride it, attacking the Congress party in a caustic speech in which he called it “a living monument of your failure”.

12.PM Modi ridiculed the scheme on assuming office

The COVID-19 pandemic and the distress it has unleashed has brought the Modi government full circle. Faced with unprecedented hardship and an economy already in slowdown, the government was obliged to fall back on the UPA’s flagship rural relief programme.

13  Covid-19 made government to fall back on UPA's flagship programme

Deeds are more important than words, and nothing speaks more eloquently than the finance minister’s recent and belated increase in the overall allocation of the programme to more than Rs 1 lakh crore.

14.Government increased the allocation of the programme to more than Rs 1lakh crore

In May 2020 alone, 2.19 crore households demanded work through the Act, the highest for the month in eight years.

15.In May 2020 alone, 2.19 crore households demanded work through MNREGA

My plea to the government is, this is a time of national crisis, not a time to play politics. This is not a BJP versus Congress issue. You have a powerful mechanism at hand, please use it to help the people of India in their time of need.

16.Don't play politics but use the scheme to help people of India:Sonia Gandhi