Congress to hold statewide protests against renaming of MGNREGS

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president B Mahesh Kumar Goud announced that the party will launch two days of protest programmes across the state this weekend, starting with a demonstration on Saturday, 20 December, at the Gandhi Statue on MG Road in Secunderabad.

In a statement issued on Friday, the TPCC chief explained that these protests follow a call from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to oppose what the party describes as a "conspiracy" by the BJP-led central government to remove Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and replace it with a new scheme titled 'Viksit Bharat G Ram G'.

Goud has urged party cadre to organise large-scale protests in every district on Sunday, 21 December, to safeguard the legacy of the original scheme. The inaugural demonstration on Saturday, scheduled for 10 am, will prominently feature pictures and songs of Mahatma Gandhi as a symbolic rejection of the government's decision and a reaffirmation of the scheme's original intent.