Parliament on Friday approved the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) or VB-G Ram G Bill, 2025, with the Rajya Sabha passing the bill hours after its approval in the Lok Sabha, amid strong protests from the opposition and repeated demands for consideration by a parliamentary committee.The lower house had previously passed the bill on Thursday.Responding to the debate in the Lok Sabha, Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the new law was a major improvement over MGNREGA, which he said was “rife with corruption and inefficiency”. He said the revised system aims to go beyond wage payment and focus on creating durable rural assets while making implementation more transparent.Opposition members led by Congress MPs protested against the bill, alleging that the government had removed Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the rural employment guarantee framework.Also read: india/mgnrega-is-now-vbg-ram-g-what-it-is-and-how-its-different-key-faqs-answered/articleshow/125975849.cms" styleobj="[object Object]" class="strong" commonstate="[object Object]" frmappuse="1">MGNREGA will be replaced by VB-G. Ram G: What it is and how it differs – important FAQs answered When calls to send the bill to a committee were rejected, opposition MPs invaded the well of the House of Representatives, tore up copies of the bill and continued demonstrations until it was passed.Chouhan dismissed the criticism, saying Mahatma Gandhi’s name was not part of the original 2005 legislation and was only added in 2009. Rejecting the allegation to the Congress, he said that numerous schemes, institutions and awards were named after members of the Nehru-Gandhi family and cited figures to support his stand.The minister said the government has allocated over Rs 150 crore for the project with the Centre’s share exceeding Rs 95,000 crore. Addressing concerns that states would bear 40% of the expenditure, he said both the Center and states shared responsibility for development.Chouhan accused the opposition of turning the parliamentary debate into “bheedtantra and goondatantra” and criticized the behavior of Congress leaders during the discussion. Speaker Om Birla said 99 MPs took part in the eight-hour debate before the bill was passed.
