The Lok Sabha on Thursday (18 December) passed the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, a sweeping piece of legislation that seeks to replace the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), triggering a sharp political confrontation in Lower House of Parliament.
Also referred to as the VB-G Ram G Bill, the proposed law aims to overhaul India’s flagship rural employment scheme by expanding guaranteed wage employment from 100 to 125 days per rural household each year. The government says the legislation is designed to strengthen income security while creating durable, productivity-enhancing assets in villages through a more centrally coordinated development framework.
However, the Bill faced stiff resistance from the Opposition, with Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra leading the charge against what she described as a dilution of MGNREGA’s foundational guarantees.
Participating in the Lok Sabha debate, the Wayanad MP argued that the proposed law would weaken the original employment guarantee and should not be rushed through Parliament without wider consultation. She accused the government of pushing the Bill forward due to “personal obsession” or “bias”, and called for it to be sent to the Standing Committee for detailed scrutiny.
“The bill should not be rushed through without proper consultation with the House or any discussion. It ought to be withdrawn, and the government should introduce a new bill,” Gandhi said. “Although Mahatma Gandhi was not personally related to me, he was like family. This is the emotion of the entire nation. This bill should be referred to the Standing Committee for detailed examination. No legislation should be pushed through merely due to personal obsession or bias.”
She also flagged persistent issues with wage payments under the existing MGNREGA framework, warning that a change in nomenclature and structure would not address long-standing implementation gaps.
“I don’t understand this thing about changing names. This new bill will weaken the right to income for at least 100 days. Wherever you go, MNREGA employees will tell you that they have not received their wages,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan sought the House’s permission to introduce the Bill, describing it as a reform-oriented successor to MGNREGA. According to the government, the new legislation will guarantee 125 days of wage employment per rural household for adult members willing to undertake unskilled manual work, while aligning employment generation with the creation of sustainable rural infrastructure.
With the Bill’s passage in the Lok Sabha, the proposed overhaul of rural employment policy now moves to the next stage of the legislative process to the Rajya Sabha, even as Opposition parties continue to question both its intent and its potential impact on one of India’s most significant social welfare programmes.
