New Delhi (TIP)- Parliament on late Thursday, Dec 18, night passed the Viksit Bharat-G RAM G Bill amid opposition’s protest. The new legislation named – Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill – will replace the MGNREGA Act, to ensure guaranteed employment days for rural workers in the country. VB-G Ram G has been cleared by the Parliament after it was passed by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote, hours after the Lok Sabha cleared it, amid strong protests by the opposition over the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the existing rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA and financial burden being put on states.
As the discussion was underway on G Ram G, some opposition members protested in Well of Rajya Sabha when the Chairman warned them not to go towards treasury benches. Several members of the opposition staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha during the passage of the Bill after demanding its withdrawal and raising slogans against the government. The opposition parties later sat on a dharna outside the Samvidhan Sadan in the Parliament complex against the Bill.
The opposition has also demanded that the Bill be sent to a parliamentary panel for further scrutiny.
Responding to the five-hour discussion on the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, Rural Development Minister Shivraj Chouhan accused the Congress of “killing” the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi several times and using his name to further political gains.
Chouhan said that during the UPA’s rule, MGNREGA was riddled with corruption and the expected amount of funds was not spent on procurement of material for designated jobs.
Opposing the Bill, Congress announced a series of nationwide protests on December 17, accusing the BJP and RSS of attempting to “dismantle rights-based welfare”. Lok Sabha had passed the bill on Thursday amid protest and sloganeering by opposition members. During the debate on the bill, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asserted that it was needed to fix shortcomings in the old scheme.
What is MGNREGA?
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, better known as MGNREGA, aims at enhancing the livelihood security of households in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
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