Hostility Towards Gandhi Behind MGNREGS Renaming: Pinarayi Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has strongly criticised the Union government’s decision to rename and restructure the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), calling it an expression of hostility towards Mahatma Gandhi’s name and ideals.

Under the new bill, the scheme will be renamed VB-G RAM G, or Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Grameen). But the bill does more than just change the name. It seeks to alter the scheme’s core objectives and imposes greater financial burdens on the states.

The proposed legislation changes the scheme from a demand-driven model, where employment is provided based on workers’ requests, to an allocation -based model, in which the central government pre-determines yearly quotas for each state. Currently, the wage component is fully funded by the Union government, while material costs are shared 75:25 between the Centre and states. The new bill changes this to a 60:40 sharing ratio.

Pinarayi Vijayan warned that once enacted, the bill would significantly reduce Kerala’s share from the Union budget, leaving the state with only 60 percent of the total cost covered by the Centre. He said the move would undermine the employment guarantee scheme, the lifeline for the poor, and urged the Union government to withdraw the proposed legislation.