Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today said that the Parliament has passed the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): Viksit Bharat – G RAM G Bill, keeping present needs in mind and to remove shortcomings of the earlier MGNREGA scheme. He was addressing the media at a press conference in Bhopal today. 

 

 

On the opposition’s allegations of changing the name of the scheme, the Minister said, even in the past, when opposition parties were in power, the names of employment-related schemes were changed several times.

 

 

Mr Chauhan said, Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) has been linked with the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti initiative to make it more effective. He said that the mission includes a clear provision for unemployment allowance, and necessary financial arrangements have been ensured under the Act. 

 

 

Criticising the opposition, the Minister said, there was a detailed debate on this bill for more than eight hours in the Lok Sabha, but the opposition MPs did not listen to his response and only created an uproar. He said the dignity of Parliament’s decorum was torn to shreds during the discussion. He alleged that the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha remained absent from the debate.

 

 

The Minister said that the proposal being brought by the Punjab government in the state assembly against Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act is against the federal structure of the country.