New Delhi: Days after a name change of the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the world’s largest rural job scheme, was speculated upon, it turns out that the Narendra Modi government is indeed set to rename it to the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill.The Bill, if passed in parliament, will become an act which will have the acronym VB–G RAM G Act.Speculation that The Wire reported upon had said that the MGNREGS will be renamed Pujya Bapu Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Yojana or PBGRGY. As Mahatma Gandhi is also called ‘Bapu’, this would have partially retained the tribute in the original naming.It turns out now that the repackaged proposed Bill will remove ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ entirely.DaysThe government’s proposal says that it aims to establish a rural development framework “aligned with the national vision of ViksitBharat @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 MGNREGS guarantee was for 100 days, based on demand, in rural areas across most parts of the country.Centre-state splitThe proposed bill says that the scheme will be implemented as a “Centrally Sponsored Scheme, under which the financial liability shall be shared between the Central Government and the State Government in accordance with the fund-sharing pattern provided under sub-section (2) of section 22 of this Act, including enhanced share of the Central Government in respect of the North-Eastern States and Himalayan States, and the responsibility of the State Government to bear any expenditure incurred in excess of its allocated share.”This possibly means that the states’ share will rise to 40%, as in any Centrally Sponsored Scheme, at a time when there is immense burden on state coffers already.The earlier Centre-state split was 90:10. This split will apply now only to the North Eastern States, the Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.PaymentUnder the proposed Bill, the disbursement of daily wages shall be made on a weekly basis or “in any case not later than a fortnight after the date on which such work was done.”WagesCuriously, the proposed Bill says:“Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or rules made thereunder, and to facilitate adequate availability of agricultural labour during peak agricultural seasons, no work shall be commenced or executed under this Act, during such peak seasons as may be notified under sub-section (2)…The State Governments shall notify in advance, a period aggregating to sixty days in a financial year, covering the peak agricultural seasons of sowing and harvesting, during which works under this Act, shall not be undertaken.”This could aid the government in keeping wages low in seasons when agricultural labourers would have otherwise been able to get the best comparable rates as landlords would join the competition in securing their labour.Stopping of fundsMost importantly, the proposed Bill also says that the Union government may, “on receipt of any complaint regarding any issue or improper utilisation of funds granted under this Act in respect of any Scheme, if prima facie satisfied that there is a case, cause an investigation into the complaint made by any agency designated by it and if necessary, order stoppage of release of funds to the Scheme and institute appropriate remedial measures for its proper implementation within a reasonable period of time.”This makes the scheme vulnerable to political movements, as has already been seen in West Bengal, where the BJP-run Union government froze payments under the scheme to the state government run by the TMC.BudgetAnother controversial clause is: “The Central Government shall determine the State-wise normative allocation for each financial year, based on objective parameters as may be prescribed by the Central Government.”This is likely to affect developed states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, especially if multi-dimensional poverty index is fixed as the ‘parameter’.As pointed out by the Road Scholarz account on X, Article 5 (1) of the Bill mentions, “Save as otherwise provided, the State Government shall, in such rural area in the State as may be notified by the Central Government, provide to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, not less than one hundred and twenty-five days of guaranteed employment in a financial year in accordance with the Scheme made under this Act.”The G RAM G is all set to destroy MGNREGA in the guise of revamping it as a new scheme. Here are 3 big issues:1. Central govt retains power to decide where and when the new scheme comes into force (!!!). This makes a mockery of the legal guarantee. pic.twitter.com/anVe0HfJft— Road Scholarz (@roadscholarz) December 15, 2025“In short, the Bill reduces a legal right to work to a token centrally-sponsored where the central govt is not accountable to anything and retains all powers. It must be opposed tooth and nail!” the commentary says.Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas has called the proposed law, “Cost-shifting by stealth, not reform.” In a post on X, he wrote:MGNREGA was demand-driven: if a worker asked for work, the Centre had to pay – G RAM G replaces this with Centre’s pre-fixed normative allocations & ceilings. When funds run out, rights run out. A legal employment guarantee is reduced to a centrally managed publicity scheme at the expense of States.Panchayats sidelined, dashboards empowered – MGNREGA trusted Gram Sabhas & Panchayats to plan works based on local needs – G RAM G mandates GIS tools, PM Gati Shakti layers & central digital stacks. Local priorities are filtered through a Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack. It makes biometrics, geo-tagging, dashboards & AI audits statutory. For millions of rural workers, tech failures mean exclusion without appeal.Decentralisation replaced by centralised templates; People become data points.Worse, G RAM G mandates suspension of work for up to 60 days every year in the name of agricultural seasons. Employment guarantee or labour control? Scheme labourers are legally told: Don’t work. Don’t earn. Wait. Stopping public works to push labour into private farms is not welfare – it is state-managed labour supply, stripping workers of wages, choice and dignity.G RAM G stands for central control, State funds & conditional rights. Same workers. Less rights. More burden. This Bill doesn’t reform MGNREGA – it dismantles it fiscally, institutionally and morally.Bottom line: In the name of RAM, the States and poor are penalised, short-changed and fiscally sacrificed.ReservationBrittas also told the Wire that under the Section 10 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) was statutorily mandated to ensure social representation, with not less than one-third of its non-official members being women and not less than one-third belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities. However, the corresponding rechristened Central Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Council under Clause 12 of G RAM G conspicuously omits these reservation criteria.In contrast, Clause 13 of the G RAM G Bill, governing the rechristened State Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Councils, explicitly retains the same representation criteria for Women; and SCs, STs, OBCs and Minorities, in the same manner as was prescribed in Section 12 of MGNREGA for State Employment Guarantee Council.“This selective retention establishes that the omission at the Central level cannot be dismissed as an oversight or drafting error, but a conscious dilution of statutory social inclusion at the apex level,” he said.