AICC General Secretary Sachin Pilot and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar during a press meet in Bengaluru on Monday. | Photo credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN
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Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Monday opposed the change in the name of the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act), saying that the Viksit Bharat-Garantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G Ram G) broke the main promise of the labor scheme of a legal guarantee of employment that provided protection to unemployed and rural workers, women and men.
MGNREGA, which was enacted during the UPA regime in 2005, was renamed as VB-G Ram G and President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the bill on 21 December 2025.
The new law brings structural changes to the work regime in the countryside and at the same time increases the number of guaranteed days of work from 100 to 125 days.
Addressing a press conference at the party office here, Mr. Pilot said that the new law will do away with gram panchayats and curtail the constitutionally guaranteed right to work of rural people. During the COVID-19 crisis, it acted as a vital lifeline, preventing millions from falling into hunger and debt.
Pointing out that the UPA government’s rural jobs program was named after Mahatma Gandhi and constitutionally mandated 100 days of employment for the poor, Mr Pilot sought to find out why it was renamed by the BJP-led dispensation.
“What was the need to change it (the name of the scheme)?. People will not like that,” said the former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan. Under the new law, the center decides which areas are rural and provides jobs to rural people based on the availability of funds. “Now it is a mere scheme and not a scheme based on constitutional law,” the Congress leader said.
Noting that all civil society groups have condemned the new law, he said that instead of strengthening it, the Union government has weakened it by reducing the state’s funds under the scheme.
The BJP-led NDA government does not want people to remember the good work done by the Congress governments in the past, alleged a Congress MLA from Rajasthan.
Published – 22 Dec 2025 20:10 IST
