Union Minister for Rural Development, and Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Shivraj Singh Chauhan introduced the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) or VB–G RAM G Bill, 2025, in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, December 16. Under this, a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment will be provided every year. Shivraj Singh said in Parliament that it is their resolve to ensure welfare of the poor and they have striven to fulfil that resolve.
The bill seeks to replace the MGNREGA with a revamped framework aimed at aligning rural employment and development with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. Under the legislation, a statutory guarantee of one hundred and twenty-five days of wage employment will be provided in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work. The Bill proposes not only the welfare of the poor but also the comprehensive development of villages. The central government has committed to spending over Rs 95,000 crore on this initiative.
Fund sharing between Centre and State
Moreover, earlier, allocation for this scheme was made according to the needs of the states. From now on, the Centre will decide how much will be allocated to which state. As a result, there is no such guarantee that the general workers will get 100 days of work. Earlier, there was a guarantee of work in this bill.
Fund-sharing pattern between the central government and state governments will be 60:40 for all states other than the North-eastern and the Himalayan states, wherein the sharing arrangement will be 90:10. The state government will continue to pay unemployment allowance and compensation. The bill provides for using biometric authentication for transactions, geospatial technology for planning and monitoring, mobile application-based dashboards for real-time tracking, and weekly public disclosure systems. All works undertaken under this Bill will be aggregated into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, creating a unified national framework for rural public works.
Bill passed amid strong objection from opposition
However, the bill was not passed smoothly. There was debate till midnight along with speeches by 98 MPs and strong objections from the opposition. Protests were held outside the parliament. Ignoring everything, the Modi government got the proposed VB–G RAM G Bill passed in the Lok Sabha by a margin of votes. Which means, the Modi government took another step forward towards making the 100 days of work project devoid of Mahatma Gandhi’s name.
Discussion on the Centre’s proposed VB–G RAM G Bill began in the parliament on Wednesday. The allotted time got over soon. The time for the adjournment of the parliament session also passed. But the debate did not stop. A total of 98 members, including the ruling party and the opposition, made their statements on this bill. The debate went on past midnight. Speaker Om Birla adjourned the session at 1:35 am.
On Thursday, as soon as Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan got up to answer the opposition’s questions on this bill, the opposition camp started protesting. Slogans were raised against the government. The bill paper was also torn. However, ignoring that, the bill was passed due to the majority.
Earlier, the opposition camp protested outside the parliament regarding the issue of removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the 100-day work project. Top leaders of the India Bloc marched in the parliament premises with banners and posters including the like of Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge. Several Trinamool Congress MPs also took part in the procession. The opposition states that Gandhi’s name cannot be removed from the bill. The bill should be sent to the select committee, they demanded. But the government did not pay heed to this.
Scheme was not named after Gandhi when it began: Shivraj Singh Chouhan
On Thursday, Shivraj Singh Chouhan argued that Gandhi’s name was not mentioned in the name of this project when it commenced. The name of the law was ‘National Rural Employment Act’. Later, to gain benefit in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi’s name was attached to it.
On Tuesday, Shivraj Chouhan introduced the bill changing the name of the 100-day work project. The bill proposes to change the name of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) to Vikas Bharat Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission (Gramin) or VB-G RAM-G (G Ram Ji in short). The proposed bill proposes to increase the number of days of work from 100 days to 125 days. The central allocation for this scheme is being reduced from 90 percent to 60 percent. As a result, the pressure on the states is increasing.