Raipur, March 17 The opposition Congress staged a walkout in the Chhattisgarh Assembly on Tuesday, alleging that the BJP-led Centre was "denying the rights of the poor" and weakening the MNREGA by replacing it with the VB G-RAM-G mission.
Chaos erupted in the House, as both the treasury and opposition benches raised slogans, prompting the Chair to adjourn proceedings for five minutes.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, senior Congress MLA and former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel said that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), enacted in 2005, is one of the largest employment-generating programmes in the world, under which lakhs of labourers have been enrolled in the state.
He alleged that while changing the name of the scheme to the Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB G-RAM-G) was one aspect, the Centre has fundamentally altered its structure and the rights guaranteed under it.
Baghel claimed that earlier, the Centre had borne 100 per cent of the wage component under the scheme, but this arrangement has now been modified, and the earlier 90:10 funding ratio for construction-related work has been changed to 60:40 across components.
The Congress demanded a discussion on the issue by moving an adjournment motion notice.
Interrupting Baghel, senior BJP legislator Ajay Chandrakar said that the Opposition had already informed the House on Monday that they would not participate in proceedings on the matter.
Notably, the Congress has planned to gherao the Assembly later in the day as part of its "MNREGA Bachao Sangram" campaign, along with raising other local issues.
Leader of Opposition Charan Das Mahant said he had earlier indicated that the Congress would move an adjournment motion on MNREGA and then boycott proceedings.
Baghel said that if the motion was accepted, there would be no need for a boycott and challenged the treasury benches to allow a discussion.
The situation escalated, as both sides raised slogans, prompting the Chair, presided over by Dharamlal Kaushik, to adjourn proceedings for five minutes.
After the House resumed, Mahant said that the issue concerns the poor people of Chhattisgarh and asserted that the party would continue to fight for their welfare.
"If issues related to the rights of the poor were not discussed, then what will be?" he asked, reiterating the demand for a debate.
Senior Congress MLAs Kawasi Lakhma and Umesh Patel also backed the demand.
However, Kaushik disallowed the adjournment motion, citing that the subject pertained to the Central government.
Following this, Congress members boycotted the proceedings and staged a walkout from the House.