Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today hit out at his successor Vasundhara Raje over the suggestion to change National Rural Employment Guarantee Act into a scheme.
"This is the extreme height of Raje government's insenstivity... to end MNREGA which is an Act. The BJP government wants to change it into a scheme in every sector," Gehlot said in a statement here.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employement Guarangee Act (MNREGA) was primarily meant to provide job rights to unemployed in villages for their livelihood, Gehlot said.
If MNREGA was changed into scheme under the state government's purview then it would lead to mess up and promote corruption, he said, adding that labourers would not get their daily wages properly and will lose their right to job.
Recently, the Raje government had written a letter to the Union Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari suggesting that MNREGA be changed into a scheme.
Referring to the flagship schemes launched during his tenure in Rajasthan till November 2013, Gehlot asked the Raje government to make the pension and free medical schemes as Acts so that people could get total benefit out of them.