The Congress on Monday (August 10, 2026) criticised the Centre over a sharp decline in employment generation under the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) [VB-G RAM G], which replaced the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and said the new law should be renamed “rozgar chori” (employment theft).

Data from the Union Rural Development Ministry show that the number of person-days generated under the scheme during its first implementing month of July 2026 was 49.94% lower than the number generated under the MGNREGA in the corresponding month last year. A person-day is a unit that measures the amount of work done by one person in a working day.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on X, said the BJP had wielded the “lathi” not only against the youth but also against the country’s labourers.

“Under the Modi government, the MGNREGA was scrapped, stripping millions of families of their ‘right to work’, and in its place, VB-G RAM G was imposed, which wiped out the employment of 50% of labourers. Has the payment of ₹17,144 crore in pending MGNREGA funds been made to the States?” Mr. Kharge said in an online post in Hindi.

Mr. Kharge also questioned whether any assistance had been provided to drought-affected States. “There is a 26.50% shortfall in sowing for the kharif crop. Does anyone care? Has the Central government taken any steps regarding the funding pattern of VB-G RAM G, on which BJP-ruled States had demanded a review? When the country’s poor labourers are suffering the most, the Modi government is snatching away their minimum economic and social security and mocking them,” he said.

Congress general secretary (communications) and former Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said the data from the first month of implementation of VB-G RAM G exposed “the cost of destroying the MGNREGA”. He argued that the MGNREGA had empowered gram panchayats and freed workers from dependence on “the political whims of the government of the day”.

“The Modi government has instead centralised the scheme, imposed a heavy financial burden on State governments, made access increasingly dependent on technology and biometric authentication, removed the guarantee of employment, and made it harder for workers to claim their rights. the VB-G RAM G is simply ‘rozgar chori’,” he said.

Published - August 10, 2026 08:52 pm IST