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Today Date : Monday, November 11, 2024

A punch on the poor man’s stomach

A punch on the poor man’s stomach

The Mahatma Gandhi 100-Day Employment Scheme guarantees at least 100 days of wage employment per family in rural areas. Also, this program is an on-demand program. Under this scheme, Rural Employment Guarantee Card holders are guaranteed employment for at least 100 days a year if they seek employment.

Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women belonging to all sections are benefiting the most under the 100-Day Work Scheme. For example, in Tamil Nadu, almost 85-90% of the 100-day employment scheme beneficiaries are women. In the recently filed financial report, 21.6% less funds have been allocated for the 100-day work plan Rs.98,467.85 crore was allocated for the scheme in the 2021-2022 financial statement, which was reduced to Rs.73 thousand crore in 2022-2023. In the latest financial statement, they have reduced the funding to Rs 60 thousand crore. What is even worse is that the Union Government has said that the State Government should also provide a certain amount of funds.

Congress President MallikarjunaKharge, in a post published on Twitter, criticized this trend of the Union BJP government saying that the Union government is axing this good project. Similarly, various party leaders have also condemned.The Union Government is destroying this scheme which was created to eradicate the poverty of the rural poor. It is a blow to the rural poor.There is widespread criticism from various quarters that the poor are being cheated due to insufficient funds being allocated for the 100-day programme.

Thiruvalluvar says that the tears of the people suffering from tyrannical rule are the force that destroys the ruler's wealth. Senior BJP leaders who do not know Tamil will occasionally talk about Thirukkural. 
But forgetting the saying, ``Tears that don't stop are the forces that wipe away wealth'', they make the poor cry, is this fair?

Any move to water down the 100-day plan is a blow to the rural poor. Therefore social activists have demanded for increase in the funds for the provision of wages and materials for the proper implementation of this scheme in this financial year. Union BJP government should think about this deeply!