People's Democracy

AIAWU Condemns Planning Commission’s Fraud

THE All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) has condemned the attempt of the Planning Commission to reduce the scheduled caste sub-plan allotment by Rs 10,000 crore  by including the money spent on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in it.

The SC sub-plan is part of the programme for social justice and cannot be confounded with a general programme to reduce the rural unemployment which does not target dalits alone specifically.

According to the AIAWU statement issued from New Delhi on January 15, 2013, this attempt of the Planning Commission, whose anti-people character is well-known, is a double-edged sword --- both against the dalits and the rural unemployed --- both of whom will face a cash crunch as a result of this clubbing together.

The AIAWU said it has already demanded that no less than 250 days of work, at Rs 300 per day, must be provided under the MGNREGA to meet the price rise. But the government refuses to curb, rather it has been fuelling, the price rise by allowing futures trading in food items and raising the fuel prices and transport costs again and again. Worse, the already meagre amount spent on dalits is sought to be diverted in this way, as it was for the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

The All India Agricultural Workers Union has called upon the people to resist such fraudulent juggling of funds and raise their voice for a mandatory allotment under the scheduled caste sub-plan and MGNREGA separately.