MGNREGA to be reframed as Viksit Bharat G RAM G bill, guarantees 125 days of work

NEW DELHI: The Central government will introduced the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevil Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) with an employment guarantee scheme.

The Centre will introduce the Bill in the Lok Sabha, which, if passed, will reframe MGNREGA to transform rural development and provide statutory wage-employment guarantees to rural households. The Bill envisions aligning rural development with the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision focusing on empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation to build a prosperous and resilient rural Bharat

The CDO-cum-EO, Balangir visited Badngamunda GP of Gudvella Block and reviewed the progress of #MGNREGS works, additional classroom construction, and rural housing projects, ensuring quality execution and timely completion.@CollectorBgr @PRDeptOdisha @SMEOdisha pic.twitter.com/JeQDr6wKm9

— Zilla Parishad Balangir (@zp_balangir) December 13, 2025

Under the Bill, public works will be aggregated to form the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, prioritising water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-related projects and climate-resitent initiatives and also aims to ensure adequate farm labour avaliability during peak agricultural seasons and to istitutionalise Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans for integrated, saturation-driven planning.

These plans will be linked with PM Gati Shakti, powered by geospatial systems digital public inhastructure, and district- and state level planning mechanism. The Bill mandates a modem digital governance framework that incorporates biometric authentication, GPS and mobile-based monitoring realtime dashboards, proactive disclosures and Artificial Intelligence tools for planning, auditing and fraud risk mitigation.

The major definitions under the Bill include adult members (18 years or older), households, blocks, implementing agencies, unskilled manual work, and the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan. The legislation also establishes Central and State Grameen Rozgar Guarantee Councils, as well as National and State-level Steering Committees to oversee implementation.

Today CDO-cum-EO Zilla Parisad Balangir paid a visit to different worksite of #MGNREGS projects of Bender GP and interacted with the Labours & GP officials.#grassrootlevelgovernance#MGNREGS pic.twitter.com/W23hMR4P7X

— Panchayat Samiti Khaprakhol (@BDOKhaprakhol) December 11, 2025

Highlighting the need for this strengthened framework, the Bill notes that over the past two decades, Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has provided guaranteed wage employment, but rural transformations, including enhanced social security coverage, connectivity housing, electrification, financial inclusion and digital access require an integrated and future-ready rural development strategy.

“To cater to the changing aspirations, stronger convergence is required to establish on integrated, whole of government rural development framework covering several complementary government schemes. It is essential that rural intrastructure creation must transition from fragmented provisioning to a coherent and future-oriented approach, and it is also essential that resources are distributed in a fair manner to reduce disparities and promote inclusive growth across all rural areas of the country based on objective parameters”, the Bill cites.

The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission aims to transition rural intrastructure creation from fragmented provisioning to a coherent, growth-oriented approach while ensuring equitable resource distribution to reduce disparities and promote inclusive development.

The legislation will come into effect on dates notified by the Central government, different states or areas and allows for phased implementation across the country.

The MGNREGS is an employment scheme under the Ministry of Rural Development that provides at least 100 days of guaranted wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer for unskilled work. Any Indian citizen aged 18 of above and residing in a rural area can apply under this scheme. The applicant receives quaranteed employment within 15 days from the application date. (ANI)