Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday (December 15) slammed the Narendra Modi government over its move to change the name of the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), asking its intention behind removing the name of Mahatma Gandhi from the scheme’s nomenclature. She said Gandhi is the tallest leader not just in India but in the world.
Renaming MGNREGA, a UPA-era scheme
A bill to repeal the MGNREGA and bring a new law for rural employment — Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025 — is set to be introduced in the Lok Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. According to a copy of the upcoming bill, it seeks to repeal the MGNREGA, which was enacted in 2005 when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was at the Centre.
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Asked about the government’s move, Priyanka said, “Whenever the name of a scheme is changed, there are so many changes that have to be made in offices, stationery… for which money is spent. So, what is the benefit? Why is it being done?”
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“Why is Mahatma Gandhi’s name being removed? Mahatma Gandhi is considered the tallest leader not just in the country but in the world, so removing his name, I really don’t understand what the objective? What is their intention?” she asked while interacting with reporters in the Parliament House complex.
“Even when we are debating, it is on other issues, not the real issues of the people. Time is being wasted, money is being wasted, they are disrupting themselves,” the Wayanad MP added.
125 days of guaranteed employment
The proposed bill aims at establishing 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 bill has been listed in the Lok Sabha in the supplementary list of business issued on Monday.
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Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in the statement of purpose of the Bill, said MGNREGA has provided guaranteed wage-employment to rural households over the past 20 years.
However, “further strengthening has become necessary in view of the significant socio-economic transformation witnessed in the rural landscape driven by widespread coverage of the social security interventions and saturation-oriented implementation of major government schemes,” he said.
(With agency inputs)
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