NEW DELHI, JUL 1 (PTI): As the VB-G RAM G Act came into effect on Wednesday, the Congress demanded the repeal of the rural employment scheme and that a strengthened MGNREGA be brought back, claiming the wages under the new law are “unjustifiably low”.
The opposition party asserted that a just minimum wage for India’s workers would be ensured by adopting the 2019 recommendation of the expert committee headed by Dr Anoop Satpathy and accommodating the increase in prices since then.
It alleged that the only guarantee the new law offers is that of extreme centralisation and weakening of the bargaining power of rural labour, and demanded that the wage rate be fixed at Rs 500 per day.
The Centre had stated that the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, or the VB G RAM G Act, will come into force across the country from July 1, replacing the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), introduced by the Congress-led UPA.
Congress general secretary and former rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said the Modi Government has notified the VB-G RAM G and the daily wage rate due to workers under the scheme. “The injustice of the Modi Government’s new law aside, the wages due to workers are also unjustifiably low – largely at Rs. 300 per day,” he said on X.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign, the Congress as part of its Shramik Nyay campaign had guaranteed a Rs. 400 national daily minimum wage to all workers – including for MGNREGA, he pointed out.
“The Expert Committee headed by Dr Anoop Satpathy, set up by the Modi Government, had also recommended a national minimum wage floor at Rs 375 per day, back in 2019,” he said. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development under the Chairmanship of Saptagiri Ulaka has also consistently recommended higher wages for MGNREGA workers, Ramesh said.
Given the “widespread minimum wage protests in industrial hubs like Noida, and at a time when the stagnation of rural wages is widely recognised as a key constraint on our economic growth”, this notification is both a “snub to India’s workers and an unwise economic policy”, Ramesh said.
“A just minimum wage for India’s workers would adopt Dr. Satpathy’s recommendation and accommodate the increase in prices since then,” he asserted.
Congress leader and MP Saptagiri Ulaka said his party has been fighting the VB G RAM G Act from streets to Parliament and will continue to do so.
“We appeal to the government that the VB G RAM G be repealed and a strengthened MGNREGA be brought back,” Ulaka said at a press conference here.
MGNREGA was a rights-based, demand-driven employment guarantee scheme which the government has converted into a supply-driven, government-driven scheme under which the Centre will decide which state would get what money based on the normative allocation that is adopted by the 16th Finance Commission to distribute the single divisible pool of taxes among states, he said.
Ulaka, who is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, said the government is changing the whole nature of the original scheme which is “very unfortunate”.
“We will continue to press for our issues. We will continue to fight till MGNREGA is restored,” Ulaka said, asserting that the Congress’ struggle from streets to Parliament would continue.
The Congress wants the minimum wage rate to be fixed at Rs 500, he said.
Ulaka said the normative allocation will not work and must be reconsidered.
“It is a very sad day because the Modi government has scrapped the MGNREGA scheme. By abolishing MGNREGA, the government has dealt a blow to the country’s poor, as this was a demand-based employment scheme,” Ulaka said.
Under the ‘supply-based model’, the Central government allocates funds and approves the labour budget in advance, he said.
Consequently, the state government must align its funds and administrative capacity to ensure the work is executed, Ulaka said.
“Previously, funds under MGNREGA were allocated based on the demand for employment; however, under the VB G RAM G scheme, a fixed budget is provided within which the work must be completed,” he pointed out.
Ulaka said a key issue is cost-sharing as under MGNREGA, the central government used to cover nearly 100 per cent of the labor cost, while material costs followed a 60:40 ratio, placing a minimal financial burden on the states.
However, under VB G RAM G, the combined labor and material costs are now subject to a 60:40 ratio, he said.
“If additional work needs to be provided beyond this, the financial burden will fall on the state government,” he said.
The Modi government claims that 125 days of employment will be provided under the scheme, but that is not the reality, Ulaka claimed.
“The allocation for Haryana, for example, stands at Rs 984 crore, of which the state must contribute 40 per cent — amounting to Rs 393 crore. Despite this expenditure, only 13.78 days of work are currently being generated in Haryana. If this were to be increased to 125 days, Haryana would have to spend an additional Rs 5,786 crore,” he said.
While the BJP government talks about 125 days of employment, the funding gap regarding central allocations suggests that their claims are nothing more than a “jumla (rhetoric)”, Ulaka said.
The Modi government has introduced the VB-G RAM G scheme not to strengthen MGNREGA, but to dismantle it, he alleged.
MGNREGA involved a process of identifying specific work projects — with the Gram Sabha deciding where the work should take place — but this participatory mechanism has been eliminated under VB-G RAM G, Ulaka said.
He said VB GRAM G has been notified as of today, “yet no one has any information regarding how operations under it will be conducted”.
“Officials have simply uploaded it to the portal, while the Gram Sabhas remain completely unaware. The rights of villagers have been snatched away and handed over to officials,” he alleges.
