Overview
- Parliament’s new VB-G RAM G law has replaced MGNREGA and guarantees 125 days of work per rural household, with provisions including unemployment allowance and penalties for delayed wages.
- BJP leaders held high-level meetings chaired by J. P. Nadda to plan a door-to-door and booth-level outreach that party officials say will counter what they call misinformation about the law.
- Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan cited over 10.5 lakh social-audit complaints under MGNREGA and pointed to higher cumulative allocations under the Modi government while asserting stronger safeguards in the new framework.
- Congress announced its ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’ from January 10 to February 25 and formed a coordination committee led by Ajay Maken, arguing the new 60:40 Centre–state cost-sharing and normative allocations weaken the right-to-work guarantee.
- State-level opposition is intensifying, with the Punjab Assembly passing a resolution against the law, AAP leading protests in Fatehgarh Sahib, and Telangana’s Assembly action drawing a BJP rebuttal.