New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS): Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday hailed UPA government's MGNREGA scheme and took criticised the BJP government for slashing its budget saying that it was a lifesaver during the Covid lockdown and acted as safety net to crores of workers.

In a tweet, Kharge said, "On this day in 2005, our Congress-UPA government enacted MGNREGA to ensure ‘Right to Work’ to crores of people."

Slamming the BJP government at the centre, the Congress leader said, "Even though Modi government has cut MGNREGA’s budget by 33 per cent, this year and it owes Rs 6,366 crore in MGNREGA wages to 18 States and Union Territories, yet this flagship programme started by the Congress party still supports 14.42 crore active workers, more than half of them are women."

"MGNREGA was a lifesaver during Covid lockdown and acted as safety net to crores of workers, making up for 80 per cent of their income loss during the pandemic," he said highlighting the role played by the scheme during Covid pandemic.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), also known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) is Indian legislation enacted on August 25, 2005. The MGNREGA provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage.