Congress Top Brass Convenes CWC Meeting to Deliberate Action on G RAM G Law
Congress Leaders Strategize on VB-G RAM G Law Ahead of Key Assembly Polls
New Delhi, Dec 27: Senior Congress leaders convened on Saturday for a crucial meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision making body, to discuss the political situation and chart a response to the government’s replacement of the UPA era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, with the new Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB-G RAM G).
The extended meeting was attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and former party president Rahul Gandhi, as well as the chief ministers of Karnataka, Telangana, and Himachal Pradesh. Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) presidents were also present.
Leaders are deliberating on the party’s strategy ahead of assembly elections next year in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry, and are expected to finalise an action plan to counter the new rural employment law.
The VB-G RAM G Act, passed in the recent winter session of Parliament and given presidential assent by Droupadi Murmu, replaces the MGNREGA. Opposition parties, including Congress, have strongly objected, calling the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name an insult to his legacy.
The new law guarantees 125 days of wage employment per year to rural households with adult members willing to undertake unskilled manual work. Unlike MGNREGA, the scheme will now require the Centre and state governments to share funding on a 60:40 basis.
