‘MGNREGA Allocation Slashed by Rs 9,000 Crore Amid Alarming Rural Distress’

'At a time when rural distress is rising, food inflation is on a high and the unemployment is the highest in the past four decades, the Narendra Modi-led government has hit where its hurts the poor most – it has slashed allocation for the rural job guarantee scheme – MGNREGA. The scheme was a kind of lifeline for the poorest among the rural population, who are bearing the worst brunt of the agrarian crisis. Terming this move by the Union Budget as a display of “total lack of responsibility and sensitivity”, the Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee, which includes activists Annie Raja, Jayati Ghosh, Nikhil Dey, Rajendran Narayanan and Rakshita Swamy, said the move show the BJP’s total lack of concern for the marginalised and an insult to the law that the government has a duty to implement...'