Chandigarh: In a major reversal of its earlier stand, the Punjab government has notified the Centre’s Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), barely six months after the state assembly unanimously passed a resolution rejecting the legislation as “anti-labour” and “anti-Dalit”.A gazette notification issued by the department of rural development and panchayats on Friday said the scheme would come into force in notified rural areas from July 1. It guarantees 125 days of wage employment annually to rural households whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work, replacing the 100-day provision under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).The notification said the scheme was being implemented “to align the rural development framework with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047” and to provide an enhanced statutory wage employment guarantee of 125 days while focusing on employment, growth, convergence and saturation.The Mann govt had convened a special session of the Punjab assembly on Dec 30, 2025, during which all parties unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the VB-G RAM G Act. The resolution accused the BJP-led Centre of dismantling MGNREGA’s rights-based framework and replacing it with a scheme that would weaken livelihood guarantees for the rural poor.The assembly had also objected to the new 60:40 Centre-state cost-sharing model, arguing that it would impose an additional financial burden on Punjab. It had urged the Centre to restore MGNREGA in its original form, contending that while the earlier law guaranteed employment as a legal right based on worker demand, the new framework tied employment to normative budgets and financial allocations, making the promise of 125 days of work uncertain.Punjab rural development and panchayats minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond could not be reached for comment. A person who answered his official phone said the minister was abroad.
