Summary of this article
Kharge alleged the BJP government has effectively abolished MGNREGA, leaving millions of labourers without work while the promised VB-G RAM G scheme remains unimplemented.
Citing reports from several states, he claimed MGNREGA works have halted and workers are protesting due to lack of employment.
The Congress chief said the PM often refers to the COVID period but ignores how the UPA-era MGNREGA law provided crucial relief to rural workers during the pandemic.
The Congress on Monday accused the Modi government of not implementing the VB-G RAM G Act on the ground after putting a "lock" on MGNREGA and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi keeps reminding people of the COVID period, but has forgotten how the UPA-era law provided relief to millions during the pandemic.
The "much-hyped" VB-G RAM G plan, which was announced on December 21, 2025, is nowhere to be found, despite claims made by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge that the BJP had eliminated the right to work for millions of people by repealing MGNREGA.
His comments on X were in response to a media report that stated that rural workers employed under MGNREGA from Bihar to Rajasthan reported that their work had been stopped, and some district officials claimed that they had been told not to begin new projects because the scheme had been discontinued, even though there were no official orders to that effect.
"For the past 87 days, 12,000 labourers in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, have been protesting due to not getting work under MGNREGA. Similarly, reports are coming in from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and several other states in the country about work stoppages for MGNREGA labourers.
"The BJP has axed the 'right to work' for millions of labourers by abolishing MGNREGA, and there's no trace of the scheme they hyped up so much," Kharge said in his post in Hindi on X.
Kharge alleged that the BJP left no stone unturned in weakening MGNREGA.
"A recent CAG report from Maharashtra states that less than 53 per cent of the approved works under MGNREGA in the state have been completed over the past 5 years. There are 2.5 lakh such works that couldn't even get started in 5 years," he said.
Kharge claimed there is no work for migrant workers who hav been forced to return to their villages due to "a shortage of LPG and the dire state of industries".
"Prime Minister ji keeps reminding us of the COVID era, but has forgotten how MGNREGA provided relief to millions of labourers during the pandemic," Kharge said.
