Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ridiculing UPA's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). He said it is the same PM who has now increased the money given under MGNREGA owing to the COVID-19 crisis.
"When Narendra Modi became PM, he ridiculed Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act saying it was an insult to Indians but the same man was forced during COVID to increase money given under MGNREGA & accepted that it played as a saviour", Rahul Gandhi said during his visit to Wayanad district.
The Wayanad MP said both SHGs and the MGNREGA were brought in by the UPA government not as a "gift" but as "tools for empowerment for making our people stronger."
He said when the MGNREGA was brought in to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, lots of people questioned it asking why we are spoiling our people by giving charity.
Rahul Gandhi is in Wayanad to inaugurate Poothadi Grama Panchayat Kudumpasree Sangamam and Vidhya Vahini bus distribution at Infant Jesus School in Kenichira.
The Congress leader on Monday met the survivors of the Kozhikode plane crash, which took place in August 2020 at Kalpetta, Kerala. The Air India Express flight carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants skidded while landing at Karipur airport in Kozhikode on August 7. At least 18 people including two pilots have lost their lives in the incident.
