The Congress today took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his reported jibe at UPA's MNREGA scheme, saying the welfare scheme fell prey to corruption in Gujarat during his tenure as Chief Minister, and the party will raise the issue in the Rajya Sabha.
"Will give a befitting reply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rajya Sabha by exposing how MNREGA fell prey to the corruption of his partymen and government machinery in Gujarat under his chief-ministership," AICC General Secretary and in charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh Madhusudan Mistry said.
Terming MNREGA as one of the UPA's flagship programmes for providing jobs to millions of poor people, Mr Mistry asked PM Modi to tell countrymen what schemes he has for providing mass jobs to poor people "rather than just using lofty rhetorics".
PM Modi on Friday said that MNERGA was the living monument of the Congress failure. His remarks had drawn strong reaction from the Congress leaders.
Mr Mistry also raised question on why PM Modi failed to stop BJP leaders and the government machinery from misusing the MNREGA funds.
Mr Mistry described the Union budget of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as anti-poor and said that it mentioned nothing for the poor and the middle-class rather it focused to benefit the corporates.
"A hike in service tax to 14 per cent and corporate rates reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent shows the government's intentions for poor and middle-class people," he said at the sidelines of a three-day camp, organised by Congress party to train youth workers.
"Those who earlier used to oppose GST and FDI now favouring these," he said.
Mr Mistry alleged that the proportionate benefit of the reduction in petroleum prices has not been transferred to the public as the government is continuously hiking excise duty even when the international crude oil prices were down.
Har Ghar Tirange "Popular Across India": PM On Eve Of Independence Day In Pics: 10 Years Of PM Modi's Symbolic Headgears On Independence Day India Observes 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day', Pays Tribute To Victims Vandalism At Kolkata Hospital Where Doctor Was Raped, Tear Gas Fired Starbucks' Indian-Origin CEO, Recently Fired, Never Worked Past 6 pm 150 mg Semen In Kolkata Doctor's Body, Suspect Gang-Rape: Parents To Court Delhi Airport Becomes 1st To Achieve Net Zero Carbon Emission Status US Welcomes India's Engagement In War Between Russia, Ukraine Google Says Iran Hackers Target Trump, Kamala Harris Campaigns Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.