The West Bengal government on Saturday rechristened the ‘Karmashree’ scheme as ‘Mahatma-Shree’ to honour father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi amid row over Narendra Modi government’s decision to scrap MGNREGA rural employment scheme.
A notification from the Panchayat and Rural Development Department said, “This scheme shall be called ‘Mahatma-Shree’. It shall come into force from the date of issuance of this notification.”
The objective of the “Mahatma-Shree” scheme, the notification stated, is to provide at least 100 days of wage employment to each Job Card holder household in a financial year through various works implemented by different Departments of the State Government.
All other provisions of the scheme shall remain in force as it is.
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The development comes after the Modi government renamed the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA scheme to VB-G RAM G, prompting a wave of criticism from the Opposition parties over removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name.
Slamming the Modi government over the issue, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that her government will rename the state’s job scheme after Mahatma Gandhi.
Banerjee said the decision to drop Gandhiji’s name filled her with “deep shame”. She said, “The removal of Gandhiji’s name fills me with deep shame. A Bill has been introduced that removes the name of Mahatma Gandhi from MGNREGA. Are we now forgetting even the Father of the Nation?”
She further added, “We have therefore decided to rename our Karmashree scheme after Mahatma Gandhi. We seek nothing except respect. And if some do not know how to honour Mahatma Gandhi, we will demonstrate what true respect means.”