Overview
- Parliament has replaced MGNREGA with the VB‑G RAM G Act, which has presidential assent and will take effect after central rules are notified.
- States will have six months to frame and notify their schemes once the Act’s start date is issued, with a model template available from the Centre.
- Government officials say verified MGNREGA job cards—about 75% of which are e‑KYC/Aadhaar‑verified—will be valid to demand work during the transition, and ongoing projects will continue.
- The new framework raises the statutory guarantee to 125 days, shifts financing to a 60:40 Centre–state model (90:10 for NE/Himalayan states, full central funding for certain UTs), and mandates tighter digital accountability including weekly wage timelines, social audits, e‑measurement and geo/biometric tracking.
- Politics around the shift has intensified, with the Congress launching a 45‑day ‘MGNREGA Bachao’ campaign and local bodies like Ludhiana’s DISHA opposing the funding change, while the BJP runs awareness drives citing audits that documented over 11 lakh irregularities and about Rs 300 crore in misuse under MGNREGA.