SHILLONG, JAN 8: The Congress party on Thursday announced that it will launch a series of agitations across Meghalaya from January 10 to February 25 to protest the BJP-led NDA government’s decision to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025.
Addressing the media after chairing a party meeting, Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Vincent H Pala said the party is finalising plans for a sustained agitation campaign at multiple levels.
“We are planning to have a series of agitations. On that front, we are working. They have done away with MGNREGA and they are going to implement the VB-G RAM G scheme. I think it is totally that they are obsessed with the name of Mahatma Gandhi and they want to communalise this,” Pala alleged.
The Congress leader claimed that the proposed new scheme undermines the rights of the rural poor and fundamentally alters the nature of employment guarantee provided under MGNREGA. He said the new legislation follows a “supply-driven” model rather than the “demand-driven” framework that formed the backbone of MGNREGA.
“The question of guarantee doesn’t arise in the new Bill actually. Under MGNREGA, if you want a job, you demand it from the competent authority and they have to provide it within 15 days. If they fail, they are bound to pay compensation. But in the new Bill, if you want a job, the proposal goes to the Centre, and it is up to them whether they will sanction it or not,” Pala said.
He further accused the BJP government of gradually weakening the implementation of welfare schemes, including MGNREGA, by introducing what he termed unreliable technologies such as Aadhaar-based systems and geo-tagging.
“They used Aadhaar-based, geo-tagged systems and lots of technologies which are not reliable as of today. In Shillong, you may get proper internet, but in rural areas you don’t. By not getting internet, they have done away with the rights of the people,” Pala alleged.
According to the Congress leadership, the agitation programme will be carried out at the zonal, district and state levels. The party plans to formally announce the schedule and modalities of the protests on January 10 through a nationwide press briefing.
“We will expose them one by one. They will do a little bit of fasting at the district level, and we will carry out agitations at the zonal, district and state levels as well,” Pala said.
The Congress has positioned the proposed agitation as a major political campaign against what it describes as the Centre’s rollback of guaranteed employment rights for rural households.
