'Another lazy headline-grabbing exercise': Congress on VB-G RAM G Act notification date

The Centre has notified the commencement of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, popularly known as the VB-G RAM...

What Happened

The Centre has notified the commencement of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, popularly known as the VB-G RAM G Act, which will replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) from 1 July 2026.
The new law raises the statutory wage employment guarantee from 100 days to 125 days per rural household per financial year.
Funding responsibilities are restructured: while the Centre fully funded wages under MGNREGA, the VB-G RAM G Act introduces Centre-State cost sharing with normative allocations, shifting a portion of fiscal burden to states.
The Act identifies four thematic domains for permissible works: water security, rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure, and mitigation of extreme weather events.
Wage payment timelines are targeted at three days, against the chronic delays — sometimes weeks or months — that plagued MGNREGA implementation.
States are permitted to suspend works for up to 60 days during sowing and harvesting seasons to prevent labour diversion from agriculture.
Unemployment allowance entitlements are retained: workers must still receive compensation if employment is not provided within the stipulated timeframe.
Elected representatives and civil society observers have raised concerns about centralisation of administration, digitisation barriers for marginalised workers, and the implications of state cost-sharing on fiscal capacity of poorer states.

Static Topic Bridges

Constitutional and Legislative Basis for Repealing MGNREGA

Labour is a Concurrent List subject (Entry 24: welfare of labour; Entry 23: social security and social insurance; Entry 22: trade unions), meaning both Parliament and State Legislatures have the power to legislate on labour matters. Parliament's enactment prevails over state legislation in case of repeal or inconsistency under Article 254. This dual-list placement is precisely why employment guarantee schemes can be legislated centrally — while their execution is constitutionally designed to involve states and local bodies.

MGNREGA, enacted in 2005, was a rights-based statute, creating a justiciable entitlement to 100 days of wage employment. Repealing such an Act requires an explicit parliamentary majority under ordinary procedure — no special majority is needed — but the repeal extinguishes statutory rights previously held by rural workers.

Concurrent List (Seventh Schedule): Entries 22, 23, 24 cover labour, social security, and welfare.
Article 254: Parliament's law prevails over state law on Concurrent List subjects.
VB-G RAM G Bill 2025 passed by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha within three days; not referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee.
MGNREGA 2005 (full name: NREGA, renamed MGNREGA in 2009) was the first rights-based employment law in India.

Connection to this news: The legislative pathway used — ordinary bill on a Concurrent List subject — was constitutionally valid. However, the speed of passage without Standing Committee review raised procedural concerns about scrutiny of a law affecting crores of rural workers.

Federalism and Centre-State Labour Relations

MGNREGA was explicitly designed around decentralised, participatory governance. The 73rd Constitutional Amendment (1992) mandated Gram Sabhas and Panchayati Raj Institutions as the primary planning and executing agencies for rural development works. MGNREGA operationalised this by requiring Gram Sabhas to select work sites and social audit processes to verify implementation.

The VB-G RAM G Act's shift to Centre-State cost-sharing and normative allocations has been critiqued on federalism grounds:

Article 258 of the Constitution requires state consent before the Centre can impose execution duties under a Central Act — critics argue the new funding structure violates this spirit by mandating state expenditure without adequate consultation.
Fiscally weaker states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha) — where MGNREGA uptake was highest — may face resource constraints in matching Centre contributions, potentially reducing actual employment provision.
The 73rd Amendment's vision of Gram Sabha empowerment risks dilution if planning and allocation decisions shift upward to central ministries.

73rd Constitutional Amendment, 1992: Inserted Part IX (Articles 243 to 243-O) on Panchayats.
Article 243G: Devolution of powers and responsibilities to Panchayats including economic development plans.
MGNREGA Section 16(1): Gram Panchayat was the principal authority for planning and implementation.
New Act: Described as "centralisation of powers and decentralisation of costs" by independent analysts.

Connection to this news: The federalism debate over VB-G RAM G is not merely political — it is a substantive constitutional question about whether the Union's redesign of a Concurrent List programme adequately respects the 73rd Amendment's mandate for local self-governance.

Rural Employment Guarantee as a Statutory Right

MGNREGA's defining feature was that it created a statutory entitlement — any adult rural household member willing to do unskilled manual work could demand employment, and the state was obligated to provide it within 15 days. Failure to provide triggered an automatic unemployment allowance.

The shift from a justiciable statutory right to a programme delivery model (with normative allocations and conditions) is a significant structural change:

From demand-driven to supply-determined: MGNREGA was demand-driven — the government had to respond to worker demand. Critics argue normative allocations make the new system budget-capped, meaning actual employment may not expand automatically with rising demand.
125 vs 100 days: While the headline figure is an increase of 25 days, legal scholars note that MGNREGA's 100 days was a floor subject to upward revision by states, and several states had already provided 150+ days in drought years. The new 125-day figure as a standard ceiling (rather than floor) is contested.
Wage rates: MGNREGA wages are notified annually by the Centre using the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL). Any stagnation in wage notification below inflation effectively reduces real wages; this concern carries forward into the new Act.

MGNREGA Section 3: Right of adult rural household members to 100 days of wage employment.
Section 7: Unemployment allowance if work not provided within 15 days.
VB-G RAM G: 125 days as standard entitlement; unemployment allowance retained.
Payment target: 3 days (MGNREGA had 15-day target; chronic delays were documented by CAG audits).

Connection to this news: Whether VB-G RAM G strengthens or weakens the statutory right depends critically on implementation design — specifically whether normative allocations are sufficient to meet actual demand and whether digital infrastructure can support timely payments for the most marginalised workers.

Digitisation Barriers and Implementation Concerns

MGNREGA had already moved to digital wage payments through the National Electronic Fund Management System (Ne-FMS) and Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS). The VB-G RAM G Act deepens this digitisation mandate. Concerns raised include:

Poor banking and internet connectivity in remote blocks reduces access for tribal and marginalised workers.
Biometric authentication failures (common among workers with worn fingerprints — daily labourers, elderly) cause payment failures.
The shift to digital grievance redressal from community-based social audits reduces oversight by the workers themselves.

ABPS: Aadhaar-linked payment; mandatory seeding required — not universally completed.
Social audit: Institutionalised under MGNREGA Section 17; audits conducted by independent Social Audit Units in each state.
CAG reports repeatedly flagged payment delays and muster roll irregularities under MGNREGA as systemic concerns.

Connection to this news: Digitisation is presented as a reform that reduces corruption and accelerates payment — but without investing in last-mile banking and connectivity, it can perversely exclude the most vulnerable from the very entitlement the law promises.

Key Facts & Data

VB-G RAM G Act 2025 replaces MGNREGA effective 1 July 2026.
Guaranteed employment: 125 days/rural household/year (up from 100 days under MGNREGA).
Work domains: Water security, rural infrastructure, livelihood infrastructure, extreme weather mitigation.
Seasonal pause: States may suspend work up to 60 days during sowing/harvesting.
Wage payment target: 3 days (vs. 15-day target under MGNREGA, frequently breached).
Unemployment allowance: Retained in new Act.
Funding: Centre-State cost sharing with normative allocations (shift from 100% Centre wage funding under MGNREGA).
MGNREGA passed 2005; workers: ~15 crore households registered; ~7-8 crore active job cardholders.
Labour is a Concurrent List subject (Seventh Schedule, Entries 22, 23, 24).
73rd Amendment (1992): Mandated Gram Sabha's role in rural planning — relevant to decentralisation concerns.
Article 254: Parliamentary law prevails over state law on Concurrent List subjects.