Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram has castigated Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s efforts to have the MGNREGS works clubbed with agriculture operations and said it went against the spirit of the Act.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mr. Veerabhadram said that the Act intended to provide work for the agriculture labourers as there was not sufficient work in agriculture sector throughout the year. Terming it an “evil decision”, Mr. Veerabhadram said it would take the labourers back to only 120 days of work per year. He also found fault with the Chief Minister’s offer of ₹ 8,000 monetary assistance per acre of agricultural land and said that it was aimed at the elections which may come up next year. “Let them give from the current year itself,” he suggested.
Besides, it was not a good idea to provide the monetary assistance without any cap on the landholding, as a greater portion of the land in the State was concentrated in a few hands.
“If the Chief Minister wants to live up to the self-proclaimed image of being ‘farmer-friendly’, he should come to the aid of chilli farmers, who are reeling under price collapse,” he said.
