The CPI-M rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's linking the Employment Guarantees Scheme with growth of the GDP, and said the scheme must get statutory funding.
Referring to the prime minister's statement that if the economy grew at 7 or 8 per cent per annum, social welfare schemes like the EGS could be financed without any problem, MP Sitaram Yechury said, "This is a dangerous caveat. If for some reason growth rate fails to reach the target, then this scheme could well be in jeopardy. This cannot be allowed.
"In other words, we are being led to believe that the successful implementation of the Employment Guarantee Act is conditional upon the implementation of neo-liberal reforms", he said in an editorial in the forthcoming issue of party organ People's Democracy.
He added that if this was the case then people must brace themselves to face a further onslaught on their livelihood, which was likely to come through cuts in subsidies and hikes in prices.
The PM "failed to give a categorical assurance that this statutory Bill will be backed by statutory funding. This would have made the guarantee rest on much firmer ground", Yechuri said.
All about India's rural job guarantee scheme
He, however, said the act was the first step towards making Right to Work a fundamental right as it was for the first time that the government would be providing a legal guarantee for employment.
He said the Prime Minister "sought to justify the reforms of liberalisation and privatisation" by saying these were necessary to achieve the targeted growth levels.
"Specifically, he mentioned that larger inflows of foreign investment, curtailing or, in general, targeting subsidies are necessary in order to protect the public sector. While doing so, he hinted at the necessity to hike petroleum prices in order to protect the oil PSUs", the editorial said.
Maintaining that the Employment Guarantee Act had come into being in response to the people's craving for a better livelihood, he said if this was to be accompanied by "further attacks on their livelihood, then clearly the government is giving from the left hand and taking from the right hand", he asserted and said the sincerity of the UPA government's
commitment to implement the job guarantee law would be ascertained in the coming days.
