Parliament winter session: Lok Sabha passes VB G RAM G Bill, guarantees 125 days of employment

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin Bill 2025 which reframed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme MGNREGS with an employment guarantee scheme during the ongoing winter session of ParliamentUnion Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who had earlier introduced the bill moved it for consideration and passingSpeaking in the house Agri Minister Shivraj Chouhan defended renaming the bill and accused the opposition of deviating from Gandhis idealsBapu is our ideal our inspiration We are committed to following the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi Ji which is why the Bharatiya Janata Party has incorporated Gandhi Jis social and economic philosophy into its Panchnischay The opposition is murdering Bapus ideals Yesterday in the House I listened to the honorable members until 130 at night You listen to your own words and dont listen to ours this too is violence he saidThe Bill aims to provide a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment per financial year to every rural household in line with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047It also focuses on strengthening rural livelihoods and accelerating overall rural developmentOn Wednesday the House held a nearly 14hour debate on the Bill with the opposition demanding that the proposed legislation be referred to the Standing Committee even as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party BJP strongly defended the Bill calling it a decisive step towards achieving a Viksit Bharat by 2047Opposition members pressed for the bill to be referred to the standing committee for scrutinyCongress leader KC Venugopal told reporters that the SHANTI Bill and the bill to replace MGNREGA should have been sent to the Standing CommitteeMoreover the Bill envisions aligning rural development with the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision focusing on empowerment growth convergence and saturation to build a prosperous and resilient rural BharatUnder the Bill public works will be aggregated to form the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack prioritising water security core rural infrastructure livelihoodrelated projects and climateresilient initiativesIt also aims to ensure adequate farmlabour availability during peak agricultural seasons and to institutionalise Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans for integrated saturationdriven planningThese plans will be linked with PM Gati Shakti powered by geospatial systems digital public infrastructure and district and statelevel planning mechanismsThe Bill mandates a modern digital governance framework that incorporates biometric authentication GPS and mobilebased monitoring realtime dashboards proactive disclosures and Artificial Intelligence tools for planning auditing and fraud risk mitigationThe major definitions under the Bill include adult members aged one year or older households Blocks implementing agencies unskilled manual work and the Viksit Gram Panchayat PlanThe legislation also establishes Central and State Grameen Rozgar Guarantee Councils as well as National and Statelevel Steering Committees to oversee implementationHighlighting the need for this strengthened framework the Ball notes that over the past two decades Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has provided guaranteed wageemployment but rural transformations including enhanced social security coverage connectivity housing electrification financial inclusion and digital access require an integrated and futureready rural development strategyTo cater to the changing aspirations stronger convergence is required to establish an integrated Whole of Government rural development framework covering several complementary Government schemes It is essential that rural infrastructure creation must transition from fragmented provisioning to a coherent and futureoriented approach and it is also essential that resources are distributed in a fair manner to reduce disparities and promote inclusive growth across all rural areas of the country based on objective parameters the Bill citesThe Viksit BharatGuarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission aims to transition rural infrastructure development from fragmented provisioning to a coherent growthoriented approach while ensuring equitable resource allocation to reduce disparities and promote inclusive developmentAny Indian citizen aged 18 or above and residing in a rural area can apply to this schemeThe applicant receives guaranteed employment within 15 days of the application dateThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever