NEW DELHI: With the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission-Gramin (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025 coming into effect on Wednesday, the Congress criticised the Centre for keeping wages "unjustifiably low" at around Rs 300 per day despite repeated recommendations by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development for higher payouts.
Seeking an increase in the wage ceiling, the party said the Expert Committee headed by Dr Anoop Satpathy, constituted by the Narendra Modi government, had recommended a national minimum wage floor of Rs 375 per day in 2019.
"Today, the Modi Government has notified the VB-GRAMG and the daily wage rate due to workers under the scheme. The injustice of the Modi Government's new law aside, the wages due to workers are also unjustifiably low – largely at Rs 300 per day. In the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign, @INCIndia, as part of its Shramik Nyay campaign, had guaranteed a Rs 400 national daily minimum wage to all workers – including for MGNREGA," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh posted on X.
He further said that at a time when minimum wage protests are being witnessed in industrial hubs such as Noida and rural wage stagnation is widely recognised as a constraint on economic growth, the VB-G RAM G notification is both "a snub to India's workers and unwise economic policy".
"The Expert Committee headed by Dr Anoop Satpathy, set up by the Modi Government, had also recommended a national minimum wage floor at Rs 375 per day back in 2019. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development under the chairmanship of @saptagiriulaka has also consistently recommended higher wages for MGNREGA workers... A just minimum wage for India's workers would adopt Dr Satpathy's recommendation and accommodate the increase in prices since then," his post added.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, senior Congress leader and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Saptagiri Ulaka, said the new framework replacing MGNREGA dismantles the statutory guarantee of work available to rural households.
He alleged that the new law weakens workers' rights by making employment contingent on pre-approved budgetary allocations rather than actual demand.
Ulaka said that under MGNREGA, any registered rural household could demand work and the administration was legally obligated to provide employment within the stipulated time or pay unemployment allowance. Funding, he said, followed certified demand, making the scheme rights-based.
According to the Congress leader, VB-G RAM G fundamentally changes this framework by shifting to a supply-based model in which employment depends on advance budget allocations, approved labour budgets, centrally determined ceilings, state contributions and administrative capacity.
He also criticised the proposed funding pattern under the new scheme, saying the Centre's share has been reduced to 60 per cent while states will now have to contribute 40 per cent of the programme expenditure.