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New Delhi, December 16 (IANS): Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday criticised the Centre’s move to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), saying she did not understand the government’s obsession with changing the name of the flagship rural employment scheme.
Reacting to the proposal to rename MGNREGA as the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Grameen) (VB G RAM G), Priyanka Gandhi said the move involved unnecessary expenditure and risked diluting the legal rights guaranteed to rural workers.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, she said: "I don’t understand this obsession with changing the name. It involves a lot of expenditure, and I don’t see why it is being done unnecessarily. Secondly, under MGNREGA, a legal right was provided — the right to 100 days of employment for the poorest of the poor. This new Bill will weaken that right."
She further questioned the government’s claims of strengthening the scheme.
"From this Bill, it appears that they have increased the number of days, but have you increased the wages? No, wages have not been increased. In fact, wages have been decreasing over the years. If you ask MGNREGA workers today, many will tell you that they have not received their payments yet," she said.
Priyanka Gandhi also raised concerns over changes in decision-making authority under the proposed legislation.
"Earlier, gram panchayats used to decide where the work would be done and who would be employed under the scheme. But this new Bill says the Central government will decide who gets work and who receives payments. This means the rights of gram panchayats are also being taken away," she added.
The Congress leader’s remarks came amid a broader political debate over the Centre’s decision to replace the existing MGNREGA framework with a new rural employment law. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday described the controversy surrounding the proposed renaming as 'unfortunate' and warned against creating an artificial ideological divide while undermining the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi.
Reacting to the government’s proposed G-RAM-G Bill, Tharoor said that the values being invoked were not contradictory. "The controversy over renaming MGNREGA in the government’s proposed new G-RAM-G Bill is unfortunate. The concept of Gram Swaraj and the ideal of Ram Rajya were never competing forces; they were the twin pillars of Gandhiji’s consciousness," he said in a post on X.
The Centre has introduced a Bill to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme with the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Grameen), abbreviated as VB G RAM G. A party whip has been issued, asking BJP MPs to be present in Parliament to ensure the Bill’s passage. According to the government, the new legislation provides a revised framework aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
Launched by the UPA government in 2005, MGNREGA guarantees 100 days of wage employment to rural households and has been considered a transformative scheme over the past two decades. The proposed Bill seeks to increase the employment guarantee from 100 to 125 days. It also includes provisions mandating payments within seven to fifteen days of completion of work, along with an unemployment allowance if payments are delayed.
The new Bill proposes categorising work under four heads — water security, rural infrastructure, livelihood infrastructure, and disaster resilience. Work will not be undertaken during peak agricultural seasons. To enhance transparency, biometric authentication and geotagging have been proposed, along with multi-level grievance redressal mechanisms.
