Our Bureau
New Delhi
The Centre has said the new VB-G Ram G Act will come into force from July 1, while the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA, will be repealed on the same day. The move marks a major shift in India’s rural job guarantee system, which has been in place since 2005.
According to the government notification, all assets, liabilities and records linked to MGNREGA will be transferred to the new law. The VB-G Ram G Act is the replacement framework for rural employment support, and it will now govern wage employment for rural households across the country from July 1.
Under the new law, rural households whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work will be entitled to guaranteed wage employment. The new scheme provides 125 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year, according to the details reported from the government announcement.
The announcement comes after months of discussion over the future of MGNREGA, the world’s largest rural employment guarantee law. The transition to the VB-G Ram G Act is expected to change how rural work, payment and implementation are handled, even as the government says the new law will continue the promise of guaranteed employment.
The government moved ahead with the rollout date, setting July 1 as the start of the new framework, for a developed India.
