The political contest over rural employment intensified in Jharkhand as the BJP and the Congress exchanged sharp charges over the Centre’s proposed G RAM G scheme, positioned as a revamped alternative to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
Leader of Opposition and state BJP president Babulal Marandi accused the Congress of deliberately creating confusion around the initiative. He said the scheme, formally described as Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission (Rural), reflects Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Ram Rajya through village-centric and corruption-free development.
Marandi alleged that MGNREGA had, over the years, become riddled with corruption and weak implementation in several states, including Jharkhand. He referred to instances of financial irregularities, works shown on paper but not found on the ground, and the use of machines in labour-intensive projects, arguing that these failures necessitated a new framework.
According to Marandi, the proposed scheme raises the employment guarantee from 100 to 125 days a year, with a 60-day no-work period aligned to agricultural seasons. He said works would be streamlined into four broad categories, including water conservation, rural infrastructure such as roads, livelihood-generating assets like storage facilities, and climate-resilient construction to address soil erosion and flood control. The model, he added, provides for AI-based fraud detection, GPS-enabled monitoring, regular public disclosures and mandatory social audits, with a Centre–state funding ratio of 60:40.
He maintained that the initiative is aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision and is aimed at improving transparency, planning and accountability in rural employment delivery. Marandi alleged that the Congress was opposing the scheme because it restricts leakages while expanding benefits such as higher guaranteed workdays and unemployment allowance.
The Congress strongly contested these claims, questioning both the intent and feasibility of the proposed changes. Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary and media in-charge Rakesh Sinha said that invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals while altering a rights-based law amounted to symbolism without substance.
The Congress said MGNREGA, introduced during the UPA government, had delivered substantial rural assets in Jharkhand between 2005 and 2019, including water conservation structures, irrigation facilities, rural roads and land development works. It argued that corruption cases cited by the BJP also occurred during BJP-led governments and accused the Centre of selectively targeting the scheme.
Sinha further alleged that successive budget cuts had weakened MGNREGA, citing a reduction in allocations in recent years that, he said, adversely affected rural employment and the village economy. He questioned the credibility of a 125-day job guarantee in the absence of adequate funding.
The party also objected to what it termed a renaming exercise that shifts authority away from panchayats and increases centralisation, placing additional financial pressure on states. The Congress accused the BJP of using religious symbolism to mask policy dilution and said it would resist any move to dismantle MGNREGA, warning of protests if rural employment rights are curtailed.