Months after unanimously passing a resolution opposing the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) scheme, the state government has notified the scheme, which will come into force from July 1.Through a resolution passed in the December 2025 session, the state Assembly had urged the Centre to immediately withdraw the Act and restore guaranteed work and wages for labourers under MGNREGA. In the Assembly, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had described the legislation as anti-poor, anti-Dalit, anti-farmer, anti-labourer and anti-women. He had argued that it would deprive rural workers of their guaranteed right to employment and wages and maintained that Punjab would not implement the law.With the notification on Friday, the Centre’s new rural employment law will come into force in the state from July 1, triggering a protest from the Congress. It alleged the AAP government had betrayed the farmers and labourers.Issued by the Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, the scheme has been notified under the provisions of the Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025. It provides an enhanced statutory wage employment guarantee of 125 days in every financial year to rural households whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work.The scheme has been notified by the Punjab Governor under Section 3(1) of the Act.The scheme focuses on employment generation, growth, convergence and saturation while extending the annual employment guarantee from 100 days under MGNREGA to 125 days.Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said the notification marked a significant policy shift by the AAP-led government, which had strongly opposed the Centre’s decision to replace MGNREGA with the VB-G RAM G framework.Former Deputy CM Sukhjinder Randhawa said the state government had betrayed farmers and labourers. Accepting the Centre’s pressure, the Aam Aadmi Party government, which had earlier called a special session of the Assembly to oppose the scheme, had now quietly implemented it in Punjab, he said.“CM Mann must clarify that when this scheme was earlier considered against the interests of Punjab and other states, what changed now that his government implemented it without any discussion. The people of Punjab are demanding answers for this U-turn,” Randhawa sought to know..