Congress today dubbed as "better late than never" the Narendra Modi dispensation's praise of UPA government's rural job scheme MGNREGA, which the Prime Minister once derided as a "living monument" of the party's "failure" to remove poverty in the past over sixty years.
"It is better late than never. If someone says some good thing, it needs to be appreciated. It shows how the landmark legislation has changed the lives of the rural poor," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
As the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) completes 10 years tomorrow, the Narendra Modi government, which was earlier critical of UPA's flagship rural job scheme, today hailed the measure saying the achievements of a decade are a "cause of "national pride and celebration".
"Do you think, I will put an end to the scheme. My political wisdom does not allow me to do it. This is a living monument of your failure to tackle poverty in 60 years. With song and dance and drum beat, I will continue with the scheme," Modi had said during the last budget session.
Marking the completion of ten years of MGNREGA, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will tomorrow visit Bandlapalli village of Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh from where the scheme had taken off.
