The government has approved a bill to replace MGNREGA with the Pujya Bapu Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Bill, promising 125 workdays per household. This move aims to counter opposition criticism on funding and boost employment claims, particularly in rural areas. Projects will align with Viksit Bharat National Infra Stack, prioritizing water security.
NEW DELHI: Government on Friday approved a bill to replace Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act – the UPA-era flagship rural employment guarantee scheme – with its own and significantly bigger Pujya Bapu Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Bill.Sources said the Cabinet chaired by PM Narendra Modi gave its nod to the proposed law, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament next week and guarantees 125 workdays per household against the 100 provided under MGNREGA. The central share will be Rs 95,600 crore for the scheme, sources said.The governing NDA has been accused by Congress – which exudes a sense of ownership over the law passed in 2005 – and its regional rivals, especially TMC, of not providing adequate funding. Govt has insisted it is a demand-driven programme and funding is given accordingly.The scheme has emerged as a political flashpoint between BJP and West Bengal’s governing TMC as the Centre had withheld funding to the state since 2022 citing alleged financial irregularities. A recent Supreme Court order to the central govt to resume the scheme did not help matters as CM Mamata Banerjee tore a paper outlining the central guidelines. With the wholesale replacement of the UPA-era law with its own legislation, whose complete details remain unclear, the NDA govt is expected to address several constituencies. Its guarantee of minimum 125 workdays to rural household blunts the opposition’s argument that the Centre is starving the employment scheme.It will help BJP’s political outreach in a predominantly rural state like West Bengal, where polls are due in a few months. The Trinamool Congress govt runs its own employment programme of ‘Karmashree’, which guarantees minimum 50 days of work.The expanded scope of the bill gives NDA a plank to boost its claim of generating more employment, especially in states with a high rural population like Bihar, where migration emerged as an issue in the recent assembly polls, and large swathes of northern and eastern states.In 2015, Modi had mocked the scheme as a “living monument” to the UPA govt’s failure, saying the rural population was pushed to doing menial work due to lack of employment opportunities, while highlighting that his govt was going to continue it in an improved form. Sources said all projects to be undertaken under the new scheme will be from Viksit Bharat National Infra Stack, which will be created using PM GatiShakti Master Plan. Priority will be on water security. Work will be taken up through Vikshit Gram Panchayat Plans, they said, adding that to ensure no shortage of workforce in the farming season, states will have to prepare a 60-day plan in advance. If states fail to give work to a household, it will get unemployment allowance.
