Will finish off rural employment guarantee scheme: Priyanka Gandhi on G RAM G Bill

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the Centre over the VB-G RAM G Bill, vowing an uncompromising fight against what she described as a move to dismantle the country’s flagship rural employment guarantee scheme.

Speaking soon after the Lok Sabha passed the legislation — amid noisy protests from Opposition benches — the Congress general secretary said the Bill, which seeks to replace the two-decade-old MGNREGA with a new rural jobs programme guaranteeing 125 days of work, amounted to nothing less than a death knell for the existing scheme.

Priyanka Gandhi asserted that the Opposition stood firmly united against the government’s move. “We will strongly oppose this Bill. All parties are unanimously against it,” she told reporters in the Parliament complex, accusing the Centre of masking its intentions behind what she called a deceptive promise of increased workdays.

“From any angle you examine it, this Bill finishes MGNREGA. The claim of increasing work from 100 to 125 days is a deceit. Anyone who reads the Bill carefully will realise that this scheme will be wound up in the coming days,” she said.

Warning of far-reaching consequences, Priyanka Gandhi argued that shifting the financial burden onto states would steadily choke the programme. “The moment the responsibility is pushed onto state governments, the scheme will slowly die. The states simply do not have the funds — especially those that need this scheme the most,” she said.

Earlier, rural development minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had defended the Bill after an eight-hour debate, insisting that the Modi government was upholding the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi through its development initiatives.

Unconvinced, Priyanka Gandhi said the legislation struck at the heart of India’s poorest. “This is anti-poor and anti-labour. We will resist it with full force,” she declared, signalling that the battle over rural employment is far from over.

With PTI inputs