There were loud protests in Lok Sabha when the government on Tuesday introduced the contentious VB—G RAM G BILL which is going to replace the flagship rural job programme MGNREGA.
Opposition members protested removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme and questioned the need for diluting the provisions of the scheme.
The Viksit Bharat – Guranatee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) , in short, VB-G RAM G Bill seeks to replace Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
Opposition MPs trooped into the Well raising slogans of “Gandhiji ka yeh apman, nahi sahega Hindustan”. They waved placards bearing pictures of Mahatma Gandhi.
Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, while introducing the Bill, said, there is no need for the Opposition to shed crocodile tears about Gandhi. He said, Gandhiji himself wanted Ram Rajya and there was no point in making it an unnecessary issue.
Opposition leaders said, the new bill provides for states to bear expenses on rural employment guarantee to the tune of 40 pc, whereas currently they were bearing only 10 pc expenses, while the rest was being paid by the Centre.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav described the bill as a dangerous one because state governments were not in a position to bear such a huge financial burden.
Chouhan pointed out that the number of minimum days of work in the new bill has been raised from 100 to 125 days.
He said, while gram pradhans used to decide the days and nature of work to be done, the Centre will now decide the works that are to be done. This, he said, has been done to stop large-scale corruption that has been taking place.
To analyse the success or failure of a welfare scheme, one should check the following benchmarks: whether the persons who are supposed to get work getting benefits? Whether money is reaching the beneficiaries? Whether money is being used for productive purpose?
Further, one must also assess whether this welfare scheme has resulted in side effects which are not good. Farmers are not getting agricultural workers during peak season because of this scheme.
Till now, more than Rs 11 lakh crore has been spent on MGNREGA. Can anybody analyze and tabulate the number of projects that have been completed in the last 19 years?
The ground reality is, many gram pradhans have been using MGNREGA workers for their own purpose. It was difficult for farmers to find agricultural workers during peak sowing and harvesting seasons.
What difference does it make if the scheme is named after Mahatma Gandhi or Lord Ram?
The difference that should matter is, whether the changes in the rural employment guarantee scheme will benefit people or not?

Tackling air pollution : Intent may be good, but policy is not

People living in Delhi NCR region have been suffering from severe air pollution for more than a week. In the last three days, Air Quality Index in NCR was hovering in hazardous and severe category range. There was some improvement in AQI on Tuesday, but it is still in ‘very poor’ category. Delhi government has been making efforts to tackle air pollution, but the results are not evident on the ground.
On Tuesday, Delhi environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa tendered apology to the people of the capital, but in the same breath, he said, mistakes committed by the past AAP government in the past 12 years cannot be corrected in 8-9 months.
Delhi government has decided to allow entry of only BS-6 grade vehicles into the capital from Thursday onwards. Sale of fuel will not be allowed to vehicles which do not have a valid PUC certificate.
Many people in Delhi NCR region are suffering from acute breathing problems. One understands, no solution can be found in a day or two. Sirsa had made tall claims to get headlines, but there has been no improvement. His efforts to carry out artificial rain proved futile. The intent was good, but the policy was not. That is why Sirsa had to tender apology.
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