Govt under fire over new rural employment bill, opposition asks why Mahatma Gandhi's name dropped

New Delhi: The government came under sharp criticism on Monday over a bill that seeks to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and replace it with a new rural employment law, with opposition MPs asking why the name of the father of the nation is being removed.

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, has been listed in the Lok Sabha in the supplementary list of business issued on Monday.

It seeks to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 and establish a "rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047", by providing a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work.

Congress MP Saptagiri Ulaka, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, said the panel made several recommendations, including that for increasing the number of workdays and wages under the MGNREG scheme.

"When they (BJP) came to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called it a scheme for digging pits... It was always their intention to end MGNREGS," Ulaka told PTI Videos.

"I don't know what problem they have with the name of Bapu, but they wanted to finish it because it was a Congress scheme. I head the Parliamentary panel, and we made so many recommendations -- to increase the number of days to 150, to increase the wages... the states have pending dues, West Bengal is not getting funds. They have brought a Bill, but why have they removed the name of Mahatma Gandhi?" he posed.

Asked about the government's move, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said, "Whenever the name of a scheme is changed, there are so many changes that have to be made in offices, stationery... for which money is spent. So, what is the benefit? Why is it being done?" "Why is Mahatma Gandhi's name being removed. Mahatma Gandhi is considered the tallest leader not just in the country but in the world; so, removing his name, I really don't understand what the objective is. What is their intention?" she told reporters in the Parliament House complex.

"Even when we are debating, it is on other issues and not the real issues of the people. Time is being wasted, money is being wasted, they are disrupting themselves," the MP from Kerala's Wayanad added.

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien termed the government's move "an insult to Mahatma Gandhi." "But then, are you surprised! These are the same people who hero-worshipped the man who killed Mahatma Gandhi. They want to insult Mahatma Gandhi and remove him from history," he said.

CPI(M) General Secretary MA Baby called it an attempt to hide the fact that the scheme has been "dismantled".

"The Union Government's grandstanding over a total revamp of the MGNREGS is an attempt to hide the startling fact that the basic rights-based framework under which it operated is being dismantled, and the central share brought down drastically," he claimed.

"The buck is being passed on to states, and the Centre can now punish opposition-ruled states by cutting down allocations. It will also codify into law the technological interventions through which lakhs of people are being deprived of their entitlements," the Left leader alleged.

Terming the move "reckless" that has been made on the heels of the notification of the "draconian" labour codes, Baby claimed it would "worsen rural distress and is totally condemnable".

"We will fight tooth and nail against this disastrous move both inside and outside Parliament," the CPI(M) general secretary added.

MGNREGA, which was passed as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in 2005 and renamed in 2009, provides up to 100 days of wage employment for unskilled labour.

The proposed new law, meanwhile, provides for 125 days of work and talks about establishing a rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.

It will be a centrally sponsored scheme, and every state government will have to prepare a scheme for giving effect to the guarantee proposed under this bill, within a period of six months from the date of the implementation of the Act.

The Centre would make an allocation for each state, to be estimated based on certain parameters. Further, expenditure in excess of the approved normative allocation shall be the responsibility of the state governments.

In the statement of purpose of the bill, Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said MGNREGA has provided guaranteed wage-employment to rural households over the past 20 years.

However, "further strengthening has become necessary in view of the significant socio-economic transformation witnessed in the rural landscape driven by widespread coverage of the social security interventions and saturation-oriented implementation of major government schemes", he said.