Lok Sabha Passes VB-G RAM G Bill, Replaces MGNREGA Amid Gandhi Naming Row
On Thursday, The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) which reformulates the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) as a statutory guarantee for 125 days of wage employment for underprivileged rural households.
Aadrika Tayal 
New Delhi (India) December 18: From the Lok Sabha Assembly, on Thursday, the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, to establish Viksit Bharat's programmes of guaranteed employment for rural workers; this bill has been met with widespread condemnation from opposition parliamentarians for what they consider the insensitivity of the Central government towards the memory of Mahatma Gandhi; and by implications the degradation of MGNREGA provisions.
Chouhan Defends Name Change and Modi Legacy
According to news agencies (ANI), the Minister of Agriculture, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, introduced the bill on the first day of Vaishakh and successfully moved it through the chamber.
In his response to the statements made by the opposition, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan stated that the naming of MGNREGA after Mahatma Gandhi was due to a political motive (preparedness for the 2009 elections).
“Initially it was NREGA and Mahatma Gandhi's name was not included in the bill. Later, when the 2009 general elections came, Bapu came to mind of Congress to get votes. I would want to say that MGNEGA was implemented properly and strongly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Chouhan said.
Bill Introduction for Rural Development
He further asserted that the Viksit Bharat Guaranteed Employment and Livelihood Mission (Gramin), 2025 seeks to build rural economies and support overall rural development.
The Lok Sabha also contemplated and debated for approximately 14 hours on Wednesday concerning the Bill and the requested tabling of legislative recommendations to the Standing Committee made by opposition members. The ruling party (BJP) was very supportive of the forthcoming legislation, and forecasted the completion of Viksit Bharat (by 2047) as an important development.
Key Provisions for Rural Jobs and Tech Upgrade
The G RAM G Bill is a Law that gives rural households that have adult members ready to do unskilled manual labour a statutory minimum of 125 days of wage funded employment per annum. Each state will have a period of six (6) months from the date on which this Act comes into force to make their rural job schemes align with the G RAM G Bill.
The bill requires all states to establish a modern digital governance system, to include: biometric authentication, GPS and Mobile-Based Monitoring System, real-time dashboards, proactive public disclosure of data, and Artificial Intelligence tools for planning and audit purposes as well as fraud risk management.
Mamata Banerjee's Strong Rebuttal
On Thursday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that she will rename the respondent's current rural job guarantee programme to be in honour of Mahatma Gandhi. She strongly condemned the BJP Government and accused it of attempting to take away the MNREGA scheme, which is over twenty years old, and replace it with the VB-G RAM G scheme, which has not yet been implemented.
"I feel ashamed that they have decided to remove Mahatma Gandhi's name from the NREGA programme, because I too belong to this country. We are now forgetting even the Father of the Nation. We will now rename the Karmashree scheme of our state after Mahatma Gandhi," Banerjee said.
