Minister for Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan has defended the renaming of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act MGNREGA to the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB GRAM G). Replying to a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Rural Development in the Rajya Sabha today, Mr Chouhan highlighted that under the NDA rule, the scheme is being implemented much better than under the UPA rule. He said the UPA Government had spent two lakh 12 thousand 409 crore rupees for the scheme from 2006-07 to 2014, but the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government has eight lakh 58 thousand 346 crore rupees for it. Mr Chouhan said that the opposition is playing politics over the renaming of the Rural Employment Act.
He said Jawahar Rozgar Yojana was going on, then it was changed to NREGA, and the name Mahatma Gandhi was added later. The Minister said that over 600 government schemes were named after the former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and one family was promoted.
The Minister said, Narendra Modi-led government has worked to alleviate poverty in the country. He said the Modi government is working with the motto of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’. He said the nation has accepted that the VB G RAM G Act is a better scheme than MGNREGA. He highlighted that over 95,692 crore rupees have been allocated under VB G RAM G in the Union Budget, which is the highest to date. He said even non-BJP-ruled states and UTs like Jharkhand, Kerala, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh have already made provisions for VB G RAM G in their budgets.
Mr Chouhan said his Ministry has worked to provide pucca houses in rural India and gas connections to rural households. He said women no longer have to walk miles or stand in lines for clean drinking water. He accused the UPA government of showing apathy towards people living in villages. He added that over 10 crore toilets were built under the Narendra Modi government’s rule.
The Minister said that PM Awas Yojana has been amended so that people with an income of over 15 thousand rupees and two-wheelers can also be eligible for pucca houses. He added that those with 2.5 acres of cultivated land and 5 acres of uncultivated land will also be eligible for Awas Yojana now. He stressed that 99% digitisation of land records has been completed.
