What's this name-change obsession? Priyanka Gandhi on new RAM G Bill vs MGNREGA
What's this name-change obsession? Priyanka Gandhi on new RAM G Bill vs MGNREGA
M.U.H
16/12/202529
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at Centre for planning to bring a Bill to replace the existing Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which provides a legal guarantee of 100 days of wage employment to rural households every year.
While speaking in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi termed it an attempt to expand Centre's control and shrink responsibilities and funds. She criticised the government for its “obsession” with renaming schemes, saying the VB-G RAM G Bill centralises power and undermines the rights previously guaranteed under MGNREGA.
She questioned the rationale behind unnecessary changes that involve heavy expenditure and weaken local governance.
"I don’t understand this obsession with changing the name. It involves a lot of expenditure. I don’t understand why they are doing it unnecessarily. Secondly, under MGNREGA, a right was provided, the right to 100 days of employment for the poorest of the poor. And this bill will weaken that right. The way they have added two or three things in this bill, it seems from the outside that they have increased the number of days. Have you increased the wages?,” she said ahead of the session today.
Centre plans to replace MGNREGA with the new 'Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin' (VB-G RAM G) bill. The proposed scheme promises 125 days of wage employment with a 60:40 Centre-State funding split.
CONGRESS ATTACKS CENTRE
Earlier, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor termed the decision "unfortunate," stating, "Mahatma Gandhi had a very, very clear vision of both the rural poor whom he cared for."
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge also criticised the Government's move to reframe the MNREGA scheme and said the Congress would oppose this,
"This is not just about renaming the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. This is a BJP-RSS conspiracy to end MGNREGA. Erasing Gandhi's name on the centenary of the Sangh shows how hollow and hypocritical those are who, like Modi ji, offer flowers to Bapu on foreign soil," Kharge said.
The NREGA was enacted by the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2005, and NREGA was later renamed as MGNREGA with effect from October 2, 2009.
WHAT IS VB-G RAM G BILL?
The government circulated the Bill, which aims to “establish a rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047”, among the members of the Lok Sabha on Monday, sources told India Today.
According to the copy of the Bill, it seeks to introduce the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, in Parliament and repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005.
The bill is aimed at establishing a "rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, by providing a statutory guarantee of one hundred and twenty-five days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work; to promote empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation for a prosperous and resilient rural Bharat".
