Opposition Slams Centre’s Move to Scrap MGNREGA, Warns of Heavy Financial Burden on States

New Delhi: The government came under sharp criticism on Monday over a bill seeking to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and replace it with a new rural employment law, with opposition parties accusing the Centre of dismantling a rights-based welfare scheme and erasing Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy from public policy.

The proposed legislation — the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025 — has been listed in the Lok Sabha through a supplementary business notice. The bill seeks to repeal MGNREGA, enacted in 2005, and introduce a new framework that the Centre claims is aligned with its “Viksit Bharat 2047” vision. While the Union government has projected the new law as providing a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment per rural household, opposition parties have dismissed this claim as misleading, arguing that the real intent is to dilute the rights-based character and legal protections embedded in MGNREGA.

CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby accused the Union government of indulging in grandstanding to conceal what he described as the systematic dismantling of MGNREGS. In a post on X, Baby said the revamp was aimed at weakening the basic rights-based framework under which the scheme operated, while drastically reducing the Centre’s financial share.

He alleged that the burden was being shifted onto states, allowing the Centre to target opposition-ruled states by cutting allocations. Baby also warned that the proposed changes would codify technology-driven interventions into law, through which lakhs of rural workers had already been deprived of their entitlements.

Describing the move as reckless, Baby said it comes close on the heels of the notification of what he termed draconian labour codes. He warned that the changes would worsen rural distress and deepen misery in the countryside. “This is totally condemnable. We will fight this disastrous move tooth and nail, both inside and outside Parliament,” he said.

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala John Brittas also accused the Union government of attempting to dismantle the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in substance, not merely by dropping Gandhi’s name. He said the changes involved serious alterations to the structure and content of the scheme and warned of far-reaching consequences for states.

Brittas pointed out that under MGNREGA, the Centre had earlier borne the entire wage cost. “Now, 40 per cent of the wage burden has been shifted to the states,” he said. He claimed this would impose an additional burden of around 2,000 crore on Kerala alone, while at the national level the Narendra Modi government was pushing an extra financial load of about 50,000 crore onto the states.

Congress MP Saptagiri Ulaka, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, said the committee had repeatedly recommended strengthening MGNREGA by increasing the number of workdays and raising wages. He recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier derided the scheme as one meant for “digging pits” and said the BJP had consistently sought to weaken and eventually dismantle it.

Ulaka said several states were already facing delays in fund disbursal, with dues pending to states including West Bengal. “We recommended increasing workdays to 150 and raising wages. Instead of strengthening the scheme, the government has brought a new bill and removed Mahatma Gandhi’s name. What is the problem with Bapu’s name?” he asked.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi also questioned the rationale behind renaming the scheme, pointing out that changing the name of a national programme would lead to unnecessary expenditure on stationery and administrative processes. Describing Mahatma Gandhi as a global symbol of justice and moral leadership, she said removing his name raised serious questions about the government’s intentions. She added that Parliament was being diverted from addressing real issues faced by the people, resulting in a waste of public time and money.

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien termed the move an insult to Mahatma Gandhi, alleging that the BJP’s discomfort with Gandhi’s legacy was evident and that the attempt reflected a broader effort to erase him from public memory.