Is MGNREGA God’s avatar? asks BJP MP

Present in the House during the debate, which was inconclusive, were Rural Development Minister Birender Singh and Parliamentary Affairs and Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu.

Yadav was the first speaker from BJP on the debate initiated by CPM’s Sankar Prasad Datta.

The BJP MP from Bihar’s Madhubani constituency said: “Just like you brought in one law to repeal 90-100 ancient legislation, bring a bill and scrap all the schemes under the central government and bring in new schemes for the country, for farmers, for villagers and for the poor.”

He added that if the MGNREGA funds were used to build toilets, villages would be clean by now.

“These schemes were used for swindling public money and keep names of a family in public memory,” Yadav said, taking a dig at Gandhi family. He also said PM Narendra Modi is going to fulfill dreams of Ram Manohar Lohia.

Earlier, Datta said the BJP government was trying to dilute the rural job scheme. He demanded that MGNREGA’s scope be expanded to include more districts.

He also noted that the scheme had been a boon for states like Tripura.
K H Muniyappa of the Congress, who spoke after Yadav, said the scheme has benefited the poor immensely and urged the government to strengthen it further. V Elumalai of the AIADMK called for bringing the urban poor under its ambit.