CHANDIGARH: Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema today launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led Union Government, pointing out that the Centre is systematically dismantling the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) scheme and stripping the poor of their right to a livelihood. Speaking in the Vidhan Sabha in support of a resolution against the recent changes and the renaming of the MGNREGA scheme to ‘Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar And Ajeevika Mission (Gramin)’ (VB-G RAM G), Cheema labelled the move as an "assault on the stomachs of the marginalised.
During his address, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema read a poignant letter from a woman worker, Charanjit Kaur, which highlighted the fears of thousands of rural labourers. Charanjit Kaur’s letter expressed the anxiety that changing rules and centralised village lists would deprive children of education and the elderly of medicine.
The Finance Minister emphasised that by centralising the scheme and moving to complex mobile-based attendance, the Union Government is snatching away the ‘Guarantee’ of work that was once the backbone of rural survival.
Pointing out the BJP is working against the spirit of the Constitution authored by Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Minister Harpal Singh Cheema slammed the BJP-led Union Government for working against the spirit of the Constitution, authored by Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. “The Preamble to the Constitution, which embodies the fundamental principles and values of the nation, is being undermined by the Centre's policies. The Preamble reads, ‘We, the People of India, solemnly resolve to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic’, ” he added.
The Finance Minister said that the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly pronounced in its judgments that the Preamble to the Constitution cannot be changed or disturbed, affirming its sacrosanct nature.