Lok Sabha
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Thursday, December 18, passed a controversial bill that seeks to replace the 20-year-old MGNREGA with a new initiative that guarantees rural jobs for 125 days every year amid vociferous protests by the Opposition.
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) provides 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work, and talks about establishing a rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader responded to the eight-hour discussion on VB-G RAM G Bill, asserting that the Narendra Modi government was ensuring that the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi were upheld through various initiatives taken by it.
“Congress killed ideals of Bapu, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ensured Bapu lives through pucca houses built under the PM Awas Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, Ayushman Bharat,” Chouhan said, listing out government schemes for the welfare of the poor.
Opposition members trooped to the well of the House raising slogans against the government for dropping Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the rural jobs initiative and tearing copies of the G RAM G Bill and flinging it towards the chair.
The Lok Sabha passed the G RAM G Bill by a voice vote amid uproar by the Opposition. The speaker adjourned the Lok Sabha for the day after the bill was passed.
Opposition leaders were quick to condemn the bill, which they say will dilute the right to work.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra vowed to strongly oppose the G RAM G bill, asserting that the proposed legislation will finish off the rural employment guarantee scheme completely. She said the Opposition is united on the issue and will strongly oppose the government’s move.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said the Bill was destroying the idea of Ram Rajya both in letter and spirit by repealing MGNREGA and renaming the scheme. “The Bill shows that the government believed in ‘Na kisi ka saath, na kisi ka vishwas, na Rahim ka, na Ram ka.’”
Defending the legislation, BJP MP Brijmohan Agarwal said the previous Congress government had reduced MGNREGA to a “dig the pit and cover the pit” scheme. “The inclusion of ‘Ram’ in the new law will deter corruption,” he added.
Experts say the G RAM G undermines the fundamental guarantees that MGNREGA provided, a central government-funded, demand-driven employment programme, guaranteeing 100 days of work per household, anywhere in rural India. The G Ram G Bill, they say, replaces it with a central government scheme that provides no guarantees at all.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmers’ unions, said in a statement on Wednesday, December 17, that the VB-G RAM G Bill is the “most retrograde legislation” that betrays the rural worker and peasant households, robbing them of their statutory right to employment assured by rural employment law MGNREGA.
“MNREGA was not just a rural employment guarantee Act. It was designed to be a demand-based programme to create rural development infrastructure relating to rural roads, irrigation, drinking water, animal husbandry, civic facilities, pro-people electrification, agro processing, etc, all that has been given a short shrift by making it a government investment-driven programme linked to the needs of big corporations,” it said.
This post was last modified on December 18, 2025 3:51 pm