Congress will not allow the BJP government to usurp the right to employment of MNREGA workers: MP Deepender Hooda

Rohtak, January 9, 2026: Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda strongly attacked the BJP's conspiracy to abolish the MNREGA scheme, saying the BJP government first gradually weakened MNREGA and has now taken a decisive step to abolish it. He said Lord Ram is the deity of millions of Indians, and said the BJP government should not snatch away the livelihood of the poor in his name.

Addressing a press conference organized by the Congress party in Rohtak today, Deepender lashed out at the BJP, saying that Mahatma Gandhi not only remained a devotee of Lord Ram through his life, but till his last breath. “Who can be a greater devotee of Lord Ram than Mahatma Gandhi, whose last words were 'Hey Ram!’, ”, he said.

“The BJP has not only changed the name of MNREGA but also reduced the budget and snatched away the rights of the laborers. The Congress party stands firmly against the attempts to usurp the rights of MNREGA workers and will protect their right to employment throughout the country,” he added.

“The BJP was uncomfortable with the MNREGA scheme from the beginning and viewed it with political vendetta. The UPA government's MNREGA scheme was praised worldwide. Millions of workers got employment through this scheme, which is why the BJP did not like this scheme,” he pointed out.  

“The BJP government only believes in changing names, not in doing work. He said that the laborers of the country have understood this conspiracy by the BJP government to snatch away their right to employment. Under the "Save MNREGA" campaign, the Congress party will fight from Parliament to the streets and will not allow this scheme to be abolished,” he said.

Deepender said previously, the scheme was demand-driven, meaning there was no budget limit under the MNREGA law. “Regardless of how many people demanded work in any state or district, they had to be provided with work, and the central government had to allocate the necessary budget,” he added.

“Now, under the new law, the central government will decide how much budget to allocate to each state, or whether to allocate any budget at all. This means that if the budget runs out, there will be no employment! Similarly, the rights of the workers have also been curtailed in the new law. Previously, there was a provision for providing unemployment allowance/ compensation if work was not provided within 15 days of requesting it,” he said

However, government’s response to a question asked by MP Varun Mulana in Parliament revealed that more than 8 lakh MNREGA workers are registered and active in Haryana, but only 2,191 families received 100 days of work in 2024-25. Since 2019, no one in Haryana has received unemployment allowance under the MNREGA scheme.

He said they had been demanding that MNREGA be linked to agriculture, but now a new rule has been introduced that the implementation of the MNREGA scheme will be suspended for 60 days during the harvesting and sowing seasons. During the UPA government's tenure, the average number of workdays in the country was around 100, which has decreased to an average of 48 days in the last 5 years, yet the BJP government is claiming to provide 125 days of work.

“Not only has the BJP changed the name of MNREGA, but it has also reduced the scheme's budget. The MNREGA budget, which was ₹1,11,171 crore in 2020-21, has been reduced to ₹85,839 crore in 2024-25. Haryana received ₹764 crore in 2020-21, but this has been reduced to ₹590 crore in 2024-25. The central government has reduced its share from 100% to 60%, shifting 40% of the financial burden onto the states,” he pointed out.

“Under the VB GRAM G Act, the central government will decide how the money will be allocated, on what basis, and which panchayats will benefit. Previously, under the MNREGA law, the Gram Panchayat formulated, approved, and monitored the work program. Under the VB GRAM G Act, all rural works will now be in accordance with the 'PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan', meaning everything will depend on the central government. In short, the panchayati raj system is also being weakened,” he added.

Deepender said removing Mahatma Gandhi's name from the MNREGA scheme is the BJP's real conspiracy. “If the BJP wanted to introduce a scheme in the name of Lord Ram, they should have launched a new scheme and increased the budget,” he said.

Speaking about the Haryana government, he said Haryana is already burdened with lakhs of crores of Rupees in debt. “It doesn't even have the money to provide unemployment allowance as per the rules when work is not available, it is not receiving funds for its own schemes and for the repair of sports stadiums, and the central government has now imposed a 40% burden of the MNREGA budget on it,” he added.

“There has been neither investment nor an increase in the growth rate in Haryana. Corruption has become widespread. People are living miserable lives under the BJP government, while most BJP MLAs are busy developing real estate colonies,” he pointed out.

He also raised the issue of the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) recruiting mostly candidates from outside Haryana, stating that even the HPSC chairman is from outside the state. He questioned whether there wasn't a single citizen among the 3 crore people of Haryana who was qualified to be the HPSC chairman.

He alleged that the rights of Haryana’s youth were being systematically denied, and a great injustice is being done to the reserved categories. “Young people from Haryana are migrating abroad through illegal routes, while Group A, B, and C jobs in Haryana are being filled by people from other states,” he said.

The Congress MP said in all other states like Rajasthan and Punjab, priority is given to local residents. “Instead, the HPSC chairman is claiming that students in Haryana universities are not being taught properly. Former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had also stated that Haryana students are weak academically. Is this the BJP government's assessment of the people of Haryana,” he questioned,

Giving examples of the selection of candidates from outside Haryana and the vacant seats in reserved categories, he stated in the Haryana Power Utilities (HPU) Assistant Engineer (AE/SDO) recruitment, 214 candidates were called for document verification, of which only 29 were from Haryana.

He questioned why Haryana students, who clear prestigious exams like the UPSC, are not able to get selected as Assistant Engineers through our own HPSC?  He added that earlier, in the selection of Civil Judges, out of 110 candidates, 60 were from outside Haryana, and in the Irrigation Department, 28 out of 49 candidates were from outside Haryana.

Deepender pointed out that in the SDO Electrical recruitment, 69 out of 80 candidates were from outside Haryana, with only 2 from Haryana. Similarly, in the Technical Education Department, 106 out of 153 lecturers selected were from outside the state.

He said great injustice is being done to the reserved categories through backdoor appointments. Giving an example, it was stated that last week, out of 613 candidates for the Assistant Professor (English) position, only 151 were selected, and the remaining posts remained vacant. A great injustice was done to the DSC category, as only 1 candidate was selected out of 60 reserved seats, with the rest left vacant under the pretext of the 35% quota and other conditions. “In protest against this, our young people are still sitting on a dharna (protest) in the biting cold today,” he said.

MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra, Shakuntala Khatak and Balram Dangi, former minister Anand Singh Dangi and Subhash Batra, Prof. Virendra Singh, Chakravarti Sharma and others were also present on the occasion.