Modi Govt to Remove Mahatma From MGNREGS, Proposed Bill to Be Called 'VB–G RAM G'

New Delhi: Days after a name change of the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the world's largest rural job scheme, was speculated upon, it turns out that the Narendra Modi government is indeed set to rename it to the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill.

The Bill, if passed in parliament, will become an act which will have the acronym VB–G RAM G Act.

Speculation that The Wire reported upon had said that the MGNREGS will be renamed Pujya Bapu Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Yojana or PBGRGY. As Mahatma Gandhi is also called 'Bapu', this would have partially retained the tribute in the original naming.

It turns out now that the repackaged proposed Bill will remove 'Mahatma Gandhi' entirely.

The government's proposal says that it aims to establish a rural development framework "aligned with the national vision of Viksit
Bharat @2047, by providing a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work." The MGNREGS guarantee was for 100 days, based on demand, in rural areas across most parts of the country.

The proposed bill says that the scheme will be implemented as a "Centrally Sponsored Scheme, under which the financial liability shall be shared between the Central Government and the State Government in accordance with the fund-sharing pattern provided under sub-section (2) of section 22 of this Act, including enhanced share of the Central Government in respect of the North-Eastern States and Himalayan States, and the responsibility of the State Government to bear any expenditure incurred in excess of its allocated share."

This possibly means that the states' share will rise to 40%, as in any Centrally Sponsored Scheme, at a time when there is immense burden on state coffers already.

The earlier Centre-state split was 90:10. This split will apply now only to the North Eastern States, the Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Under the proposed Bill, the disbursement of daily wages shall be made on a weekly basis or "in any case not later than a fortnight after the date on which such work was done."

Curiously, the proposed Bill says:

"Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or rules made thereunder, and to facilitate adequate availability of agricultural labour during peak agricultural seasons, no work shall be commenced or executed under this Act, during such peak seasons as may be notified under sub-section (2)...The State Governments shall notify in advance, a period aggregating to sixty days in a financial year, covering the peak agricultural seasons of sowing and harvesting, during which works under this Act, shall not be undertaken."

This could aid the government in keeping wages low in seasons when agricultural labourers would have otherwise been able to get the best comparable rates as landlords would join the competition in securing their labour.

Most importantly, the proposed Bill also says that the Union government may, "on receipt of any complaint regarding any issue or improper utilisation of funds granted under this Act in respect of any Scheme, if prima facie satisfied that there is a case, cause an investigation into the complaint made by any agency designated by it and if necessary, order stoppage of release of funds to the Scheme and institute appropriate remedial measures for its proper implementation within a reasonable period of time."

This makes the scheme vulnerable to political movements, as has already been seen in West Bengal, where the BJP-run Union government froze payments under the scheme to the state government run by the TMC.

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