Maha Panchayat of MGNREGA workers asks President to withdraw the VB-G RAM G act
Bengaluru (PTI): A Maha Panchayat of MGNREGA Workers in Karnataka on Monday petitioned the President of India to withdraw the VB-G RAM G act and bring back the UPA-era employment guarantee scheme immediately.
MGNREGA Protection Coalition - Karnataka has sent a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu in this regard.
"With great pain and concern, we are writing this letter to you. On February 2, 2026, more than 10,000 rural agricultural workers (including women, Dalits, landless labourers, small farmers) from various parts of the state gathered at Freedom Park, Bengaluru as part of the Mahapanchayat,” the memorandum said.
“We are preparing and submitting this memorandum to you from Freedom Park where the Mahapanchayat is being held. We earnestly request your immediate intervention in our distress," it added.
It has been 20 years since the MGNREGA was enacted on the simple principle that workers struggling for employment should get work in their own villages with minimum wages, the Maha panchayat said.
"Another key objective of this law was the conservation of local natural resources and environmental protection, so that these resources would continue to generate employment for local people in the future. Desilting village tanks, canals and streams to ensure water retention, soil conservation, and creating more work in farmers' fields were all integral to this vision," it added.
Noting that there are 26 crore registered workers in MGNREGA, the Maha Panchayat said, in Karnataka alone, 1.79 crore people are registered. More than half of them are women, and about 30 per cent are Dalits and Adivasis.
"A law that provided employment to rural people on such a massive scale should have grown stronger every year. Instead, over the past 11 years, the BJP-led union government has steadily weakened this law -- tightening central controls, denying adequate financial support. As a consequence, wage payments have been routinely delayed," it said.
Excessive digitisation has resulted in workers not getting paid despite having worked, and crores of job cards have been deleted. Despite all these problems, for lakhs of families in Karnataka, MGNREGA has remained a lifeline, it added.
Alleging that in December 2025, the union government suddenly and without any prior consultation repealed MGNREGA and in its place enacted a new law called VB-GRAM G Act, which was "rushed through in the Parliament, the memorandum said.
This new law does not address any of the prevailing challenges that MGNREGA was facing. Instead, the VB-GRAMG Act will only increase corruption.
"Decisions about where work should be carried out and what kind of work should be done are now taken entirely by the union government. Under MGNREGA, state governments had to contribute only 10 percent of the funds,” it said.
“Under the new law, states must contribute 40 per cent. When the Union government already owes large sums to Karnataka, imposing this additional burden is unjust," it further said.
Expressing concerns, the Maha Panchayat said, the union government has repealed MGNREGA and implemented the VB-G RAM G Act, effectively turning our right to livelihood into a matter of central discretion.
MGNREGA workers across the country have consistently raised demands that employment should not be limited to 100 days per family, but should be 100 days per individual, amounting to approximately 300 days per family; wages should be increased to a minimum of Rs 600 per day; and as working people who earn by labour, our wages must be paid within the same month, the memorandum further said.
"None of these justified demands were addressed. Instead, the government has moved to take away even our existing rights," it added.
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Bangladesh court sentences Sheikh Hasina to 10 years in jail in corruption cases
Dhaka (PTI): A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to 10 years in jail in two separate corruption cases related to alleged irregularities in allocations of land in a government housing project.
Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-4 Judge Rabiul Alam handed down the verdicts, sentencing Hasina to a total of 10 years’ imprisonment — five years in each case, state-run BSS news agency reported.
The court sentenced 78-year-old Hasina, her nephew Radwan Mujib Siddiq, and her nieces, Tulip Rizwana Siddiq and Azmina Siddiq, and others in the cases over alleged irregularities in the allocation of plots under the Rajuk New Town Project in Purbachol.
The judgment was pronounced at around 12.30 pm.
Tulip Siddiq was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment — two years in each case — while Radwan Mujib Siddiq and Azmina Siddiq were each sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in both cases.
Rajuk member Mohammad Khurshid Alam, the only accused to surrender before the court, was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment in each case, totalling two years.
The court also fined all convicted persons Tk1 lakh each and ordered them to serve an additional six months in prison in default of payment.
Hasina has been living in India since she fled Bangladesh on August 5 last year in the face of the massive protests. She was earlier declared a fugitive by the court.
The cases were filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over alleged abuse of power in the allocation of two 10-katha plots.
According to the prosecution, the accused manipulated the allocation process and violated existing rules and regulations of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).
