The Telangana legislative assembly unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the central government's Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (Grameen) Act-2025, which replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, citing threats to rural employment security and federalism principles.
The Telangana state legislative assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on Friday opposing the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (Grameen) Act (VB G RAM G–2025), introduced by the central NDA government to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Telangana becomes the second state assembly after Punjab to pass such a resolution against the new law. When Punjab's assembly passed its resolution, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan described it as “anti-federalism” and “violative of the Constitution”.
Introducing the resolution, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy stated that the new Act would dilute the spirit, intent, and guarantees of the MGNREGA. “The Centre should continue the MGNREGA in its present form to fulfil the aspirations and livelihood needs of wage-seeking rural families,” he said. The rural employment guarantee programme was launched in 2005 by the then UPA government led by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, coming into force on February 2, 2006, to provide livelihood security to rural poor families.
The legislation aimed to address poverty, unemployment, distress migration, exploitation of unskilled labour, and wage disparities between men and women, ensuring inclusive growth across social groups. Its core objective is to offer a legal guarantee of at least 100 days of wage employment per year to every rural household at minimum wages. Over the past two decades, around 90% of beneficiaries in Telangana have been from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Backward Classes, with women accounting for nearly 62% of the workforce.
The House expressed grave concern that the proposed VB G RAM G–2025 undermines the rights of the rural poor and weakens employment security for women and vulnerable sections dependent on the scheme. “Provisions which dilute the foundational principles of the current law would prove detrimental to poor households,” the resolution stated. It criticized the shift from demand-driven planning, which undermines the scheme's core principle, and called for continuation of the demand-based approach.
The new framework is seen as detrimental to women workers, who form 62% of the MGNREGA workforce, as restrictive allocations would reduce workdays and affect poor households disproportionately. Currently fully funded by the Union government, the proposed 60:40 Centre-State funding ratio violates federalism and burdens states financially. The assembly also objected to removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name, viewing it as an attempt to dilute Gandhian values, and to the mandatory 60-day break during the agricultural season, which is unjust to landless rural labourers.
While the current scheme allows 266 categories of works, the new law removes several labour-intensive activities like land development, adversely affecting small and marginal farmers, Dalits, and tribal communities. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, CPI leader K Sambasaiva Rao, and others spoke on the resolution.
