After the Centre notified the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025, the Congress on Wednesday alleged that the new framework replaced the rights-based architecture of MGNREGA with a programme tied to budget allocations and government approvals.The party argued that under the new model, employment would no longer flow from demand raised by workers, but from labour budgets approved in advance, expenditure ceilings fixed by the Centre and the financial capacity of state governments.The criticism sharpened after the government also notified daily wage rates under the new scheme, with wages in most states remaining around Rs 300 per day.Calling the rates “unjustifiably low”, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the new rates ignored both expert recommendations and the rising cost of living. He recalled that during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had promised a national minimum wage of Rs 400 per day for all workers, including those employed under MGNREGA.He also pointed out that the expert committee headed by Dr Anoop Satpathy, constituted by the Modi government, had recommended a national minimum wage floor of Rs 375 per day in 2019.Ramesh said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development chaired by Saptagiri Ulaka had repeatedly sought higher wages for MGNREGA workers.Referring to minimum wage protests in industrial centres such as Noida and concerns over stagnant rural incomes, the Congress leader said a fair wage structure based on the recommendations of the Satpathy committee should be adopted, while also accounting for inflation since 2019.However, the party stressed that the larger concern remained beyond wages and centred on the future of MGNREGA itself. According to the party, “For nearly two decades, the programme guaranteed every registered rural household the legal right to seek employment, making it mandatory for the authorities to provide work within a stipulated period or pay unemployment allowance. Funding followed certified demand, making the scheme one of the country’s few rights-based welfare programmes.”Addressing a press conference, Ulaka said, “The new framework overturns this principle by shifting to a supply-based model, in which employment will depend on approved labour budgets, centrally determined ceilings, state contributions and administrative capacity.”Describing Wednesday as “the saddest day for the country”, he said the new law effectively ends the MGNREGA framework, on which rural workers had relied upon since 2005.Ulaka also questioned the revised funding pattern under VB-G RAM G, under which the Centre would contribute 60 per cent of the programme expenditure while states would bear the remaining 40 per cent.He stressed that under MGNREGA, the Centre carried almost the entire burden of labour cost while material expenditure was shared between the Centre and states in a 60:40 ratio. Under the new arrangement, labour and material costs would both be shared in the same proportion, substantially increasing the burden on state governments.He claimed that if states attempted to provide the promised 125 days of employment, Haryana could ultimately bear nearly 89 per cent of programme costs and Maharashtra around 88 per cent.Ulaka also questioned the proposed 60-day suspension of public employment during peak agricultural seasons and demanded wages of at least Rs 500 per day, linked to an updated rural inflation index and annual revisions. He further sought restoration of the Centre’s responsibility for guaranteeing employment, and protection of job cards from arbitrary deletion and withdrawal of the proposed funding structure.