Congress says NDA trying to dilute MNREGA to benefit the rich

Accusing the NDA government of being "anti-poor", senior Congress leader C P Joshi today said the Centre was trying to dilute the UPA regime's flagship programme MGNREGA to "benefit the rich".

Joshi, who was the Rural Development Minister in the previous UPA government, said this while participating at a conference of MNREGA officials here.

"The current government is anti-poor. It only wants the industrialists to make money. Any dilution of the MNREGA programme which came into force through an act of Parliament in 2005 will make the poor weaker and the rich stronger," he said as he alleged that MNREGA officials were not getting their payments on time.

Amidst opposition in several quarters to its plan to tweak the rural job scheme, NDA government in October had asserted that it would go ahead with MGNREGA reforms as it charged that the flagship programme of the previous UPA regime "was allowed to be exploited for purely partisan purposes".