Mansa (Punjab), February 17 Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, warned on Tuesday that the proposed Indo-US trade agreement could harm the state's farmers and weaken the MSP-based procurement system.
Addressing a "Save MGNREGA" rally here, the Congress leader said opening the agriculture and dairy sectors to heavily-subsidized foreign products would pose a serious threat to Punjab's agrarian economy.
He also expressed concern over the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre replacing the MGNREGA with the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, claiming that converting a rights-based programme into an allocation-driven scheme would weaken livelihood security for the rural poor and put an additional financial burden on the states.
Bajwa said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), enacted during former prime minister Manmohan Singh's tenure, guaranteed work and wages to crores of rural households, and played a key role in reducing poverty and empowering women and marginalized communities.
He said more than 20 lakh registered beneficiaries in Punjab depend on rural-employment programmes, many of them from the Scheduled Caste (SC) communities.
Any reduction in guaranteed work would directly affect lakhs of families who rely on it for income, the Congress leader said.
He urged both the Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab to protect farmers and labourers in policy decisions, and ensure that any trade agreement safeguards domestic agriculture and provides remunerative prices to farmers.