Sadar Hills Congress Accuses Modi Sarkar of Dismantling Right to Work

In a scathing indictment of the Modi Government, the Sadar Hills District Congress Committee (SHDCC) on Wednesday launched an aggressive phase of the “MGNREGA Bachao Sangram” by organising a one-day fast-cum-District Level Press Conference at NC Event Hall, Saparmeina, asserting that the Centre is deliberately dismantling the constitutional Right to Work and pushing rural India towards hunger, unemployment and forced migration.

The programme was held as per the directives of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) and was attended by MPCC General Secretary & In-charge SHDCC, Sorkho George, PCC Member (51 Saitu A/C) and Vice-President MPCC, Dr. Lamtinthang Haokip, R. Rengsinkhup Kharam, President, BCC, along with senior party leaders, grassroots workers and well-wishers.

Addressing the media, Congress leaders accused the Modi Sarkar of systematically hollowing out MGNREGA, converting a hard-won legal right into a discretionary favour controlled from Delhi, and weakening village self-governance to benefit contractors and centralised control.

Highlighting the alleged four attack on the right to work by the Modi Sarkar, the Congress leaders stated that MGNREGA once guaranteed 100 days of work as a legal right to every rural family, to be provided within 15 days on demand. Under the Modi Government, this right has been effectively scrapped, with work now treated as a “scheme” to be distributed selectively, based on political convenience.

They also said stagnant wages, denial of work during harvest seasons and arbitrary wage fixation have pushed workers into desperation, forcing them to accept exploitative labour without minimum wage protection. “This is nothing but institutionalised wage theft,” they alleged.

Under MGNREGA, Gram Panchayats had the authority to plan and execute development works. The Modi Government’s changes, the Congress leaders said, centralise power in Delhi, bring back contractors, eliminate MGNREGA mates and Rozgar Sahayaks, and reduce elected Panchayats to rubber-stamp implementing agencies.

Earlier, the Union Government paid 100 per cent of wages, but now states are forced to bear 40 per cent of wage costs. This, Congress leaders warned, is a calculated move to financially choke states, forcing them to cut employment and abandon rural workers.

They further accused the Centre of starving MGNREGA of funds, delaying wage payments, and imposing ABPS and NMMS systems that have excluded crores of genuine workers from receiving wages, calling it a digital barrier designed to deny work rather than enable it.

The SHDCC stressed that Gram Sabhas across the country are being mobilised to pass resolutions demanding the restoration of MGNREGA and the constitutional Right to Work.

The Gram Sabha Resolution demands restoration of the legal guarantee of work on demand; the right to seek employment throughout the year; protection of the pan-India character of MGNREGA; and restoration of the Gram Panchayat’s authority to plan and execute works.

Reiterating the Congress Party’s stand, the SHDCC placed four non-negotiable demands before the government: Guaranteed Work, Guaranteed Wages, Guaranteed Accountability; immediate rollback of all anti-worker changes to MGNREGA; full restoration of the constitutional Right to Work and national minimum wage of ₹400 per day.

The Congress leaders reminded that MGNREGA has been the backbone of rural survival for nearly two decades, providing employment to 4.6 crore families during the COVID-19 crisis, generating over 180 crore person-days of work, and creating durable rural assets nationwide.

“The Modi Government wants a contractor-driven, centralised model that weakens workers and villages. The Congress will not allow the Right to Work to be buried,” the Congress leaders declared, warning that the MGNREGA Bachao Sangram will intensify from villages to Parliament until justice is restored.