Accusing the Modi government of dismantling the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Congress leader Rajendra Pal Gautam on Monday alleged that the Centre was imposing additional financial burden on state governments under the guise of the new scheme VB G-RAM--G.

Gautam, national chairman of SC cell of AICC, along with Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram told news persons here at the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters, Sadaqat Ashram that the Centre had replaced MGNREGA with "Viksit Bharat G Ram Gi law," land giving major financial responsibility upon the states.

He said states already facing financial stress would not be able to bear 40 per cent of the expenditure under the new scheme.

Gautam accused the Centre of gradually dismantling welfare schemes meant for youth, women, minorities and the poor, while simultaneously selling or mortgaging public sector institutions to capitalists.

Recalling the origins of MGNREGA, he said Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, as chairman of the Constitution's Drafting Committee, wanted to include the right to work as a fundamental right, but due to some reasons, he could not do it.

Realising the need for employment security, the Congress-led UPA government enacted MGNREGA in 2005 to provide 100 days of guaranteed employment in rural areas, with 90 per cent of the financial burden borne by the Centre, he said.

Gautam alleged that while the NDA government claims to have increased employment days from 100 to 125 under the new law, it has snatched the scheme from the Panchayati Raj system, removing employment guarantees for workers and transferred decision making powers entirely to the Centre. He alleged that the centre did it to weaken and to shut down MGNREGA by making it financially unviable for states.

Criticising the government over renaming schemes, Gautam said the BJP led government had a habit of changing the nomenclature of existing programmes instead of introducing new ones.

Citing several examples, including the renaming of the National Rural Livelihood Mission as Deendayal Upadhyaya Gramin Antyodaya Yojana, the National Urban Livelihood Mission as Deendayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana as Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission as Atal Mission, Indira Gandhi Awas Yojana as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship as the National Fellowship for ST Students, the Congress leader said that the time has now come to rename Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "Hitler" and union Home Minister Amit Shah as "Mussolini".

He also criticised the Centre over the falling value of the rupee against the dollar and alleged that several welfare schemes for women, students, minorities and youth had been discontinued.

Earlier, Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram said MGNREGA, launched under the UPA government with the initiative of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, had strengthened rural development and provided economic security to the poor through a 100-day employment guarantee.

He alleged that the present government had weakened the scheme by shifting the financial burden from the Centre to the states.

Ram said the Congress opposed any law that increased inequality and diluted the core objectives of MGNREGA, asserting that the party would continue to resist policies that undermine the rights and livelihoods of the rural poor.