CHENNAI: CPM State secretary P Shanmugam on Monday accused the Union government of carrying out a “cruel attack” on the rural poor by removing lakhs of workers from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) rolls.

He said that between October 10 and November 14 alone, 27 lakh beneficiaries across the country have been removed from the list, with the authorities citing the non-submission of Know Your Customer (KYC) details as the reason. He pointed out that multiple layers of verification, including mandatory Aadhaar linkage, had already been imposed on workers over the years.

Shanmugam alleged that the Union government had steadily been weakening the scheme by reducing budget allocations, cutting the number of workdays and lowering the number of active bene

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