Arunachal Congress raises alarm over “dilution” of MGNREGA, warns of livelihood crisis

The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has launched a strong attack on the Union government over what it termed the systematic weakening of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), warning that recent policy changes pose serious socio-economic risks to tribal and rural communities in the state.

According to a press release issued by the APCC, the party recently conducted a two-day “MGNREGA Bachao Sangram” outreach programme across eastern Arunachal Pradesh on January 18 and 19. 

The campaign covered Dibang Valley, Lower Dibang Valley, Anjaw, Lohit, Namsai and Changlang districts, and involved extensive interactions with Panchayat leaders, rural workers, civil society groups and district-level stakeholders.

The outreach programme was spearheaded by APCC president Bosiram Siram and led by advocate Abraham K. Techi, vice-president of the APCC and chairman of the MGNREGA Bachao Sangram Committee, along with APCC general secretary Chera Taya. Several district Congress leaders coordinated the programmes at Roing, Tezu, Namsai and Kharsang.

Speakers during the campaign underlined that for nearly two decades MGNREGA functioned as a legal socio-economic safety net, guaranteeing 100 days of employment, providing supplementary income to tribal and rural households, reducing distress migration, increasing women’s participation in the rural workforce, strengthening village infrastructure and empowering Gram Sabhas in local decision-making.

However, the APCC expressed serious concern that the Union government has effectively diluted the scheme by abolishing its rights-based character, introducing a centralised VB-GRAM-G framework, reducing the work period from 12 months to four months, excluding Panchayats and Gram Sabhas from planning, curtailing the role of states, and shifting fund control to New Delhi. The party also criticised the introduction of drone surveillance and geo-tagging mechanisms, calling them intrusive and counterproductive.

The Congress party warned that these changes undermine India’s federal structure, grassroots democracy and the livelihood sovereignty of villagers, while replacing legal entitlements with discretionary allocation that could expose rural communities to political dependency. A socio-economic impact assessment presented during the outreach highlighted risks such as income insecurity for tribal communities dependent on seasonal labour, renewed distress migration among rural youth, marginalisation of women workers, weakening food security and erosion of Panchayat institutions.

The APCC demanded that the Union government immediately restore MGNREGA as a statutory employment guarantee, reinstate 100 days of legal work, ensure year-round employment availability, return planning powers to Panchayats and Gram Sabhas, restore the role of states in implementation, suspend drone and geo-tagging surveillance, and protect tribal and rural livelihood ecosystems.

In his concluding remarks, APCC president Bosiram Siram said the Congress party’s struggle is aimed at defending constitutional federalism, socio-economic security and the democratic dignity of rural India, asserting that the movement to protect MGNREGA would continue “from villages to Parliament.”