The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the 2025 Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill to replace the 2005 Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act amid protests from the Opposition.
The bill will need to be cleared by the Rajya Sabha before it is sent for presidential assent.
The MGNREGA was introduced in 2005 by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and aimed at enhancing the livelihood security of households in rural areas. The scheme guaranteed 100 days of unskilled work annually for every rural household that wants it, covering all districts in the country.
While the wage bill for the scheme is borne by the Union government, the states share the cost of materials and administrative expenses.
The new bill proposes to increase the number of guaranteed working days to 125 from 100 and raise the state’ share of the costs to 40%.
Responding to an eight-hour discussion on the bill, Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday claimed that there were several shortcomings in the MGNREGA, The Indian Express reported.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said that states had spent more on labour and less on material procurement. He also added that successive governments had launched employment guarantee schemes before MGNREGA.
Rejecting the Opposition’s claim that the Narendra Modi government was arbitrarily changing the names of schemes, he added: “Congress killed ideals of Mahatma Gandhi when it accepted Partition… when they gave special status to Kashmir…when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency…”
Opposition members stormed the well of the Lower House shouting slogans against the Union government for dropping Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme. The MPs also tore copies of the VB-G RAM G bill and flung it towards the chair.
The bill was passed by voice vote amid the uproar. Subsequently, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.
During discussions in the Lower House on the proposed legislation a day earlier, the Telugu Desam Party flagged the increased burden on the state government, The Hindu reported.
Andhra Pradesh was a revenue-deficient state, Telugu Desam Party Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu said.
“When we have to cough up 40% from the state to fund this scheme, we request that the same amount of support that has been extended for the last one and a half years be continued so that the scheme can be implemented well,” the newspaper quoted Devarayalu as saying.
The Telugu Desam Party is part of the ruling NDA at the Centre.
Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP K Kanimozhi said that while the share of the state government in central taxes had been shrinking, the financial burden on them was increasing.
She also criticised to the Hindi nomenclature of the bill, The Hindu reported. “This is not a ‘Viksit Bharat’ bill but a ‘vexed’ bill,” the newspaper quoted Kanimozhi as saying.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra noted that the word “guarantee” appeared 92 times in the bill. However, if the fine print was read, it did not guarantee anything as the Union government gets to fix the budget and also notify the areas where the scheme would be implemented.
The proposed legislation states that the Union government will determine the state-wise normative allocation for each financial year based on “objective parameters”. It also proposed that only the Union government can notify rural areas in a state where the scheme will be implemented.
Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh claimed the draft legislation was anti-women, The Hindu reported.
Women constitute 90% of the MGNREGA workforce in states like Kerala, he noted.
As per the bill, the governments in the North East states, Himalayan states (Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh) and the Union Territories with Legislature (Jammu and Kashmir) will contribute to 10% of the scheme’s funding.
The Centre will bear all costs in Union Territories that do not have a legislature.
The proposed legislation retains the provision that a person is entitled to a daily unemployment allowance if work is not provided within 15 days of applying under the scheme. The cost of the allowance will be borne by the state governments.
State employment scheme to be named after Gandhi: Mamata
Later on Thursday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from MGNREGA filled her with “deep shame” and added that she would rename a similar employment scheme in the state after him.
“Are we now forgetting even the Father of the Nation?” the Trinamool Congress chief asked. “We have therefore decided to rename our Karmashree scheme after Mahatma Gandhi.”
The scheme was launched in 2024 by the state government to provide at least 50 days of employment to job card holder households in a financial year through works implemented by different departments.
She added: “We seek nothing except respect. And if some do not know how to honour Mahatma Gandhi, we will demonstrate what true respect means.”
Also read:
- BJP chief ministers wanted MGNREGA to include farm work. Modi government’s bill goes another way
- ‘A bill to destroy MGNREGA’: Why experts fear the worst from new job guarantee bill
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