By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Left parties in Uttarakhand have asked the centre to repeal the VB–G RAM G scheme claiming it was introduced to fulfil “communal” objectives.
“It is extremely regrettable that the central government, without extensive discussion and consultation with stakeholders, introduced the VB-G Ram G bill in Parliament, got it passed, and has now made it into law after obtaining the President’s assent.
“A demand-driven work scheme, which guaranteed the right to work, has been replaced by a scheme whose first casualty is the right to work itself,” left parties said in a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu after staging a protest demonstration at Gandhi Park in Dehradun.
The memorandum said farmers, farm laborers, and civil society organizations across the country were consistently demanding that MNREGA be linked to agricultural work, but this new scheme, introduced after abolishing MNREGA, includes a provision to suspend the scheme for up to 60 days during the farming season, thereby pushing farm laborers towards “unemployment and exploitation”.
It said the law passed under the name of VB-Gram Yojana is another attempt by the BJP government to centralize everything in the hands of the central government. “This law has been designed in such a way that while responsibilities are decentralized to the states, the powers remain completely centralized with the central government. The states, already facing a weak economic situation, have been burdened with a 40 percent budget share in this scheme, which is tantamount to the government withdrawing from providing employment in rural areas.
“It is a tendency of the government to use schemes not for public welfare but as tools to impose its petty communal and linguistic dominance, and the same has been done with the name of this scheme,” the memorandum claimed.
“We demand that this scheme, which attacks the right to work, disregards the federal structure of the country, and has been introduced as a law to fulfill petty communal objectives, be repealed,” it said.
MNREGA should be expanded, and a guarantee of 200 days of work and a daily wage of Rs 600 should be provided, the memorandum said.
Those participating in the protest and submitting the memorandum included CPI(M) State Secretary Rajendra Purohit, CPI(ML) State Secretary Indresh Maikhuri, former CPI National Council member Samar Bhandari, CPI(M) Secretary Anant Akash, Kisan Sabha State General Secretary Gangadhar Nautiyal, AITUC General Secretary Ashok Sharma, CITU General Secretary Lekhraj, S.S. Rajwar, Bhagwant Payal, Dharmanand Lakheda, Shambhu Prasad Mamgai, Abhishek Bhandari, Nuraisha Ansari, Mahipal Singh Bisht, N.S. Panwar, Prema Gadhiya, and a large number of other people.