Opposition MPs strongly opposed the bill that seeks to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). While raising slogans, the Opposition MPs also tore apart copies of the bill and flung bits of paper in the lower house.
VB G Ram G Bill passed by Lok Sabha (Photo: Sansad TV)
The Lok Sabha Thursday passed the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): VB–G Ram G Bill, 2025 amid sloganeering by Opposition members. The bill was passed through a voice vote amid din.
Opposition MPs strongly opposed the bill that seeks to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). While raising slogans, the Opposition MPs also tore apart copies of the bill and flung bits of paper in the lower house.
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The bill was passed after Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan replied to the discussion on the VB–G Ram G Bill, 2025 in Lok Sabha.
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The House has now been adjourned till 11 am tomorrow, which is the last day of the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.
LokSabha passes The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): VB – G Ram G Bill, 2025.
इसका उद्देश्य ग्रामीण क्षेत्रों में रोज़गार और आजीविका की सुरक्षा सुनिश्चित करना है।
यह विधेयक मौजूदा महात्मा गांधी राष्ट्रीय ग्रामीण रोज़गार… pic.x.com/SIbw1A2paC
— SansadTV (@sansad_tv) December 18, 2025
Earlier, Chouhan rejected the Opposition charge that the government was disrespecting the Father of the Nation by removing his name from the bill, saying the Congress party had killed the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi when it had accepted the partition of India in 1947.
The Congress also rejected Mahatma Gandhi’s call for disbanding the party, when they gave special status to Kashmir, when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency, the minister claimed.
He further alleged that Mahatma Gandhi’s name was added to NREGA, which was originally brought in in 2005, with an eye on the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
MGNREGA: A timeline of India’s rural employment guarantee scheme
Replying to Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi’s charges that the Modi government was renaming schemes on a whim, Chouhan listed out various schemes named after the Nehru-Gandhi family.
As the minister continued his speech, Opposition members chanted ‘we want MGNREGA’.
The minister, meanwhile, said there were several shortcomings in the MGNREGA, adding that the states were spending more on labour and less on procuring material. Successive governments have launched job guarantee schemes before NREGA, he stated further.
#WATCH | Delhi | On VB-G-RAM-G Bill passed in Lok Sabha, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra says,” We will protest against this bill. With this bill, MGNREGA will end in the coming months. The moment the burden shifts to the states, this scheme will gradually end. This bill is… pic.x.com/DIFsPvYWCd
— ANI (@ANI) December 18, 2025
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament after the contentious bill was passed, Priyanka Gandhi said they will continue to oppose the bill.
“We will strongly oppose this Bill. This Bill will end MGNREGA, which worked as a support for poor labourers, even during COVID. This Bill is absolutely against our workers, labourers, poor people and we will oppose it tooth and nail,” the Congress leader stated.
The Narendra Modi government said the new bill that seeks to replace MGNREGA is a major overhaul of the existing legislation.
The bill, among other changes, seeks to increase the minimum number of days for which employment will be guaranteed, from 100 days to 125 days per year per rural household for adults willing to undertake unskilled work.
The bill also proposes a 60-day pause in work under the rural employment guarantee scheme every year in order to ensure labour availability for agriculture. This, the government argues, will tackle artificial wage inflation as well as bring down pressure on food prices.
The new bill further reduces the priority areas of work under the scheme from a broad list to four categories: water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-related assets and climate-resilience works, according to the FAQs released by the government.
The VB-G RAM G Bill also proposes changes in the funding model for the scheme and departure from the existing full central funding for unskilled wages. It proposes 60:40 Centre-state funding for most states and Union Territories which have legislatures. A 90:10 funding formula will apply to northeastern and hill states, including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, while UTs which do not have legislatures will continue to receive full Central funding.
One of the most contentious provisions has been the shift from demand-driven labour budgeting to state-wise “normative allocations” to be determined annually by the Centre.
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