Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond on Saturday wrote to Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan seeking the regularisation of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) employees under the newly introduced VB‑G RAM G (Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission) scheme.

He urged the Centre to formulate a uniform national policy guaranteeing job security for these employees. Reaffirming that the state government stands firmly with over 2,100 MGNREGA employees, the minister questioned the Centre’s decision to shift the financial burden of the new scheme onto states while leaving employees’ future uncertain.

 

He demanded the immediate release of pending salaries and asserted that employees who have strengthened rural development programmes for nearly two decades cannot be abandoned after 18 years of service.

 

Sond said, “This is a very sensitive issue, and it is entirely related to the BJP‑led Central Government. However, all the Opposition parties, whether it is the Congress, the Akali Dal or the BJP in Punjab, are trying to divert the issue and mislead people so that the entire matter is blamed on the Punjab government. The truth and the facts must be placed before the people.”

 

The minister said the MGNREGA scheme was introduced in India around 2005 under an Act through which the Central Government was to employ every household. “The scheme has been implemented in Punjab for nearly 18 years, and employment has been provided to people in villages under this Act,” he said.

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Sond added that, to employ this scheme, around 2,000 to 2,100 employees, including Technical Assistants, Gram Rozgar Sahayaks, and Computer Operators, have been working under this entirely Central Government scheme for the last 18 years.

 

He said instead of taking care of these employees and regularising their services, not only in Punjab but across the country, the BJP‑led Central Government discontinued the existing MGNREGA scheme and announced that a new scheme would come into force from July 1.

 

Raising questions about the decision, Sond said the biggest concern is how the hard work these employees have put in over the last 18 years can be wiped out in a single moment. “They worked under a Central Government Act and a Central Government scheme for all these years. The Punjab government had no role whatsoever in this scheme,” he added.

 

--IANS