Umerkote, Jan, 19:After the Central Government renamed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as “Viksit Bharat Gramin Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (VB–GRAM)”, the opposition has been spreading misinformation about the scheme in various places. To clarify how the new scheme is better than MGNREGS, the BJP organised a district-level press conference in Nabarangpur district on Sunday and shared detailed information about the scheme.
The press conference, held at the Umerkote BJP office, was attended by MP Balabhadra Majhi, State BJP Vice-President Ramesh Chandra Sahu, District BJP President Kunjabihari Das, MP’s representative Ram Nayak, Jharigaon Block MP’s representative Chandrabhanu Nayak, among others. They presented detailed facts explaining why the new scheme is superior to MGNREGS.
They stated that the scheme has been designed keeping in mind Mahatma Gandhi’s vision for rural development.
Addressing the press, MP Balabhadra Majhi said that under MGNREGS, labourers were often misled and large-scale corruption took place. To prevent this, strict legal provisions have been included in the new VB–GRAM scheme. He added that the new scheme will involve joint participation of the Centre and the State governments, ensuring that there will be no shortage of funds.
He further said that under the new scheme, labourers will get 125 days of work along with higher and assured income. While widespread corruption was reported under MGNREGS, he claimed that there would be no scope for corruption under VB–GRAM.
The scheme has been introduced to achieve the goal of a “Developed India” by 2047, he said. Under MGNREGS, people often did not know where works were being carried out, but under the new scheme, geo-tagging will be implemented so that everyone can track where and what work is in progress.
The BJP leaders stated that the new scheme would help stop misuse of public funds and play a key role in realising the Prime Minister’s vision of a developed and prosperous India by 2047.
Among others present at the programme were Minister’s representative Ashok Padhi, Santosh Mahapatra, Milu Panda, Babula Sahu, Ramahari Sahu, and Sana Nayak.