Gujarat govt praises NREGA: ‘lifesaver’ for migrants who came back after lockdown

[bhaigan]

In a report released by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani last week, the state government has hailed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as a “lifesaver” for migrant workers who had to return to their villages in Gujarat following the Covid-19 lockdown last year.

The report also says that agriculture “cushioned” migrant workers, and the government should “prioritise agriculture” as a solution to the crisis.

Citing specific examples from villages in the predominantly tribal district of Dahod among others, the report says the state government should “re-strategise MGNREGA” — a scheme launched by the previous Congress-led UPA government in 2006 — as a solution for post-Covid rural recovery, and should “include skill-mapping, long-term risk coverage and income assurances”.

 

The report, Implications of Covid-19 on Gujarat on energy, emissions, climate and developmental perspectives, has been “prepared by the (state government’s) climate change department and supported by the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute of Technology-Gandhinagar”.

[bhaigan]

BJP led govt. supporting Congress socio economic schemes