Chandigarh/Balachaur/Samrala, January 9: The Congress’ statewide campaign titled ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ gathered pace in Punjab on Friday as thousands of people, including large numbers of MGNREGA workers, attended party rallies in Balachaur and Samrala.
Addressing the gatherings, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress general secretary in charge of Punjab Bhupesh Baghel said a Congress government in the state after the 2027 Assembly elections would make a “special provision” to revive the employment guarantee scheme.
“If the BJP government does not restore MGNREGA till 2029, the Congress government at the Centre, with Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister, will revive it,” Baghel said.
Accusing the BJP-led Centre of weakening welfare laws, Baghel alleged that the government intended to scrap MGNREGA altogether. “A rights-based law has been reduced to charity. Decisions that were earlier taken by panchayats are now being taken in Delhi,” he said, adding that policies were being framed to benefit “a handful of industrialists”.
Punjab Congress president Raja Warring asserted unity within the party and dismissed claims of internal divisions. “The BJP and AAP are spreading rumours because they have nothing to say against the Congress,” he told the gathering.
Warring also said he was not in the race for the Chief Minister’s post. “None of our leaders is projecting himself. Our only aim is to form the government and free Punjab from looters and robbers,” he said.
Criticising the AAP government, Warring said the party had failed to implement MGNREGA in Punjab. Citing Ludhiana as an example, he said, “Out of 1.21 lakh eligible families, only 12 received 100 days of work.”
Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said MGNREGA was enacted by the Congress in 2005 after wide consultations. “The parliamentary standing committee that examined the Bill was headed by BJP leader Kalyan Singh,” he noted.
Referring to law and order, Bajwa said, “Nobody feels safe in Punjab today. When the Congress comes to power, we will finish gangsters the way we eliminated terrorism from the state.”
He also accused the AAP government of plundering Punjab’s resources and questioned the utilisation of revenue from sand mining. “If Punjab was to earn Rs 20,000 crore annually from sand, where has that money gone?” Bajwa asked.
