Rural Employment Guarantee Act amended sans states’ consent, alleges Pilot | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: Congress general secretary and former union minister Sachin Pilot Monday said the party’s working committee will meet in Delhi on Dec 27 to discuss changes brought to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), alleging the Centre amended the scheme without consulting state govts.Pilot said the funding pattern has been altered from 90:10 to 60:40, increasing the financial burden on states and reducing their autonomy. “The revised programme disempowers local panchayats, as the Centre now decides the projects and the locations where they will be implemented,” he said.Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar said projects worth Rs 300 crore, including checkdams and cow shelters, were implemented in Kanakapura taluk under MGNREGA and later earned the state a development award. “However, bringing the funding ratio down to 60:40 is the death of the programme. The Centre already owes the state labour payments,” he said, adding that the scheme had been constitutionally designed to empower villages.Shivakumar said the state govt and Congress would launch campaigns and convene gram panchayat-level meetings to demand a rollback of the decision to replace MGNREGA with G RAM G.Minister Priyank Kharge will meet stakeholders in Delhi on Dec 23 to discuss the funding changes.Jaipur march over Aravalli miningPilot also announced a protest march in Jaipur on Dec 26, alleging unchecked deforestation and illegal mining in the Aravalli mountain range and warning of serious consequences for Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and the National Capital Region (NCR).The mountain range runs primarily through Rajasthan, extending from Gujarat through Haryana to Delhi, forming a key ecological barrier in northwestern India.Pilot said a march would be taken out from Jaipur to highlight the issue and accused the Centre of inaction. He demanded a judicial inquiry into alleged illegal mining by more than 10,000 entities, warning that continued destruction of the Aravallis threatened future generations and regional ecological security.Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav later rejected the allegations in Delhi, saying the Aravalli hills were not being opened up for unchecked mining and that Supreme Court directions were being followed. “The Supreme Court has already given its judgment on this matter. Our govt promotes a green Aravalli. Misinformation is being spread regarding the Aravalli hills,” he said.Countering this, Pilot said reliance on outdated assessments could cause irreversible damage across the NCR. “By allowing these guidelines to continue, you are allowing the oldest mountain range to be destroyed. They are using outdated reports,” he said, adding, “If the Aravalli is destroyed, the entire NCR region will be affected. Public outrage has to be answered.”