Ohh, looks like "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme" is now proposed to be renamed as "Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act", or VB–G RAM G Act!

And as I predicted, it is no longer a right or a guarantee, it is now simply alms thrown by the government to the people. In the words of CPI(M) MP John Brittas:

VB–G RAM G Bill repealing MGNREGA: removing Mahatma Gandhi was only the trailer. The real damage is deeper.

Govt removed the soul of a rights-based guarantee law and replaced it with a conditional, centrally controlled scheme stacked against States & workers.

“125 days” is the headline. 60:40 is the fine print - MGNREGA was a fully centrally funded one for unskilled wages; G RAM G downgrades it with States to bear 40%. States will now have to shell out around Rs. 50,000+ crore. Kerala alone will have to bear an additional 2,000–2,500 crore. Cost-shifting by stealth, not reform. This is the new federalism: States pay more, Centre walks away, yet claims the credit.

MGNREGA was demand-driven: if a worker asked for work, the Centre had to pay - G RAM G replaces this with Centre’s pre-fixed normative allocations & ceilings. When funds run out, rights run out. A legal employment guarantee is reduced to a centrally managed publicity scheme at the expense of States.

Panchayats sidelined, dashboards empowered - MGNREGA trusted Gram Sabhas & Panchayats to plan works based on local needs - G RAM G mandates GIS tools, PM Gati Shakti layers & central digital stacks. Local priorities are filtered through a Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack. It makes biometrics, geo-tagging, dashboards & AI audits statutory. For millions of rural workers, tech failures mean exclusion without appeal.
Decentralisation replaced by centralised templates; People become data points.

Worse, G RAM G mandates suspension of work for up to 60 days every year in the name of agricultural seasons. Employment guarantee or labour control? Scheme labourers are legally told: Don’t work. Don’t earn. Wait. Stopping public works to push labour into private farms is not welfare - it is state-managed labour supply, stripping workers of wages, choice and dignity.

G RAM G stands for central control, State funds & conditional rights. Same workers. Less rights. More burden. This Bill doesn’t reform MGNREGA - it dismantles it fiscally, institutionally and morally.

Bottom line: In the name of RAM, the States and poor are penalised, short-changed and fiscally sacrificed.