New Delhi (PTI): As MGNREGA workers continued to protest for the 40th day against the new app-based attendance mechanism, DMK MP Kanimozhi and RJD MP Manoj Jha extended their support to the protesters and demanded the new systems be rolled back.  Kanimozhi, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, said she will invite MGNREGA workers before the committee.  Jha, meanwhile, accused the government of not listening to the workers, and stressed on taking the protest to the streets.  He said his question in Rajya Sabha on Aadhaar-based payment to MGNREGA workers was not answered properly by the government.  “What can I say about this session… You all are watching what is happening to Parliament, or what has happened in Parliament. We should use past tense, there used to be a Parliament. When we go to the new building perhaps it would be even more difficult,” Jha said.

“The only option available to us… they are afraid of the force on the street, not the force within the Parliament. If there is a synergy between the street and Parliament, they will take it back. We have seen them taking back so many so-called golden laws,” he said.   Kanimozhi questioned the need for the app-Based attendance system.  “The government says this is against corruption, but finally it is ensuring that few people walk away with the money and it does not actually reach the people it was intended for. We know that this government does not believe in welfare, it believes in welfare of the few, they have been up in arms to protect some people,” she said.  “This scheme was brought in for people, slowly their rights are being taken away. The wages in MGNREGA is less than what the state government approves of. Non-BJP governments, and West Bengal is a classic example, have not been given the money,” she said.  The MPs had joined groups that are holding a 100-day protest against the new mobile application based attendance system, led by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha.

Monday was the 40th day of the protest which has been going on at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi.  The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha said the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has agreed to take remedial action to address some of the workers’ woes.

A delegation of workers and activists from NREGA Sangharsh Morcha met S.K. Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development and Dharamvir Jha, Director of Department of Rural Development.  The delegation highlighted the issues arising from the imposition of two National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) and Aadhar-Based Payment System (ABPS).

“While the Centre claims these measures will help reduce corruption, we find the ground reality to be the opposite. Workers across the country have lost crores in wages as a result of their attendance not being marked on NMMS or their bank accounts not being ABPS-enabled,” they said in a statement.

So far, workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and West Bengal have joined the protest here in Delhi.  The protest started in the national capital on February 14,  barely a month after digital attendance was made mandatory for MGNREGA. The protesting workers say their attendance is not getting marked and resultantly their wages are being deducted.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, better known as MGNREGA or NREGA, is a flagship scheme aimed at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.