New Delhi: Buoyed by the success of MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme) - the rural employment guarantee scheme launched the then UPA government in the centre in 2006, the ruling Congress government in Rajasthan is trying to replicate the model in the urban parts of the state as well.
Rahul Gandhi in a recent Facebook post has made it clear that the party will try to the implement Indira Gandhi Shahari Rozgar Yojana- an employment scheme for the urban unemployed- making it obvious that the party is trying break the jinx of the anti-incumbency factor that might become an important factor in the coming 2023 state assembly polls.
“Just as the Congress brought MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in 2005 to provide employment to the poor in villages, Rajasthan’s Congress-led government has brought the Indira Gandhi Shahari Rozgar Yojana to tackle increasing unemployment in the cities. Needy families in cities will be provided 100 days of guaranteed employment per year,” Rahul said in a Facebook post in Hindi on Monday.
Interestingly enough Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has already announced budgetary provisions for the urban jobs scheme and has now decided to spend around Rs 800 crore per year on the plan. It is thought that Ghelot had made the announcement under the instruction of Gandhi. The scheme will benefit persons between the age of 16 and 60 years. Congress leaders said the pandemic had increased unemployment in the cities, which was hard to detect, but needed to be addressed as migrations were regularly happening from villages to the urban settlements.
Gandhi, who was instrumental behind the rural jobs scheme besides Rajasthan has also promised to implement this urban jobs scheme across the country if the party is voted back to power in 2024. MGNREGA that was passed in 2005 and was launched by the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre the next year across 625 districts in the country. Experts believe that MGNREGA played an important when it was voted back to power for the second consecutive term in 2009.
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The Congress leader, who is in London for an event, said his party will continue to raise the issue of employment as it affects the youth. In fact, recently, Rahul flagged the issue of joblessness while addressing the 'Ideas for India gathering in London'. “We will continue to raise and solve important issues faced by the people of the country. This scheme should be implemented not only in Rajasthan, but across the country,” he said on the social media post. Noting that unemployment in the country was at record levels and had brought suffering in both rural and urban areas, the former Congress chief said, “More than 45 crore people have given up hope of getting a job.”
Over the past years, Congress has been vocal against unemployment across the country, especially the poll-bound states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu . He has blamed the Centre’s policies like the 2016 demonetisation and the subsequent neglect of the small and medium sectors, which were hit by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, for the malaise.
