Bharatiya Janata Party’s Punjab unit chief Sunil Jakhar on Saturday said from January 7, his party will launch a campaign to raise awareness among the public about the VB-G RAM G Act.
The campaign will be launched from the Fazilka district. (HT)
He also said the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, had been formulated in the interest of the poor.
“The government of India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has always followed the policy of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, and this scheme is also for the welfare of the poor,” Jakhar said in a statement issued here.
While the government had increased the number of guaranteed employment days for the beneficiaries from 100 to 125, the new scheme also fixed accountability in cases where no work was provided to labourers, he said.
The scheme’s implementation will tackle corruption, and the labourers’ entire wage amount will be directly credited to their bank accounts, the BJP leader claimed.
“This is why the AAP government and the Congress are opposing the new scheme,” he claimed.
The campaign, which will be launched from the Fazilka district, will “expose the misleading propaganda” being spread by the AAP and the Congress against the scheme, and will make labourers aware of the truth, he said.
The BJP leader pointed out that in the past, no one was held accountable for failing to provide 100 days of employment to labourers. However, under the new law, accountability will be fixed, and the rights of the poor can no longer be denied.
Jakhar alleged that the AAP government was indulging in “false” propaganda against the scheme to cover up its own failures and divert attention from real issues, and that the BJP will break this web of misinformation through an extensive public awareness programme.
On December 30, the Punjab assembly had unanimously passed a resolution against the VB-G RAM G Act, accusing the BJP-led Centre of “taking away” the livelihoods of the poor and Dalit labourers by scrapping MGNREGA under a “deliberate conspiracy”.
The House had recommended that the Punjab government seek from the Centre to restore the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to its original right-based form immediately.