Parliament all set to pass 'VB - G RAM G Bill 2025' to replace MGNREGA with Rajya Sabha taking up a debate

New Delhi: Parliament is all set to pass the contentious 'VB - G RAM G Bill 2025' to replace MGNREGA with Lok Sabha passing it on Thursday amid high drama and the Rajya Sabha taking it up for a debate that went past midnight.

The Lok Sabha cleared the Bill at 1 pm and it came up for an eight-hour discussion in Rajya Sabha at around 7 pm, with the government saying that it would pass the legislation that replaces Mahatma Gandhi's name from rural job guarantee scheme, transforms the programme into supply-driven from being demand-driven and reducing union government's expenditure to 60% and mandating states to pay up the rest.

After an eight-hour debate that ended on Thursday early morning, the Bill was taken up for passage in Lok Sabha a little after noon with Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan replying to discussion, amid sloganeering by Opposition MPs who had entered the Well of the House. As the Minister was replying, some MPs tore the Bill and threw it in the air while some made paper planes and flew it.

When the Bill was taken up for passage, some MPs entered the inner cordon of the Well where the Secretary General and other officials sit while the proceedings are on and shouted slogans. Speaker Om Birla rushed through the passage and adjourned the House for the day, thus binning a discussion on air pollution to be initiated by senior Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The Bill was later sent to Rajya Sabha and taken up after the passage of the SHANTI Bill, which seeks to allow private sector in the nuclear power sector and relaxing the liability regime to omit supplier's liability. In the Upper House, the debate may go beyond 3 am as eight hours is allocated and conclude with Chouhan's reply.

Before the House assembled, the I.N.D.I.A MPs staged a protest march from Gandhi Statue to 'Makar Dwar' in Parliament House with Trinamool Congress also joining it. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and top Congress leader Sonia Gandhi among others participated in the protest.

In Lok Sabha, Chouhan said the change was necessary to fix shortcomings in the scheme while attacking the Congress, claiming that it had "killed" the ideals espoused by Mahatma Gandhi many times over and used his name to further political gains. He alleged that MGNREGA under UPA was riddled with corruption with allocated funds diverted.

"Funds were not allotted to the states as expected. MGNREGA was riddled with problems. As per the Act, 60% of the funds were to be spent on labour and 40 per cent on material. But, only 26% was spent on material and funds were siphoned off. Corruption was rampant under MGNREGA," he said adding it was felt that amount to the tune of Rs 10-11 lakh crore should not be spent on merely paying wages but used for creating permanent assets.

"Congress killed ideals of Bapu, NDA ensured Bapu lives through pucca houses built under the PM Awas Yojana, Ujjwala yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, Ayushman Bharat," he said. Defending the name change, he said it was just NREGA when it was implemented by UPA and Mahatma Gandhi's name was added later. "When the 2009 general elections came, Congress remembered Bapu to get votes," he claimed.