Assembly Debate Heats Up: Siddaramaiah Demands Rollback of VBG Ram G, Restoration of MGNREGA
Bengaluru | February 3, 2026: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday mounted a sharp critique of the Centre’s VBG Ram G scheme during a discussion in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, warning that its implementation would severely undermine rural employment, decentralised governance, and the economic security of women, Dalits, and Adivasis.
Participating in the debate, the Chief Minister said the earlier MGNREGA framework ensured employment for people across social groups, preventing distress migration and providing demand-based work at the local level. He recalled that before MGNREGA, rural workers were forced to migrate in search of livelihoods.
Siddaramaiah pointed out that under MGNREGA, Gram Sabhas and Panchayats decided the nature and location of works, in line with the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments. “This decentralised model has now been dismantled,” he said, alleging that under the new scheme, the Central Government decides where work will be provided, effectively sidelining local self-governments.
Referring to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure, the Chief Minister said landmark legislations such as food security, the Right to Education, the Right to Information, and forest rights had strengthened the poor and marginalised. In contrast, he argued, the new law strikes at the roots of rural empowerment.
Highlighting Karnataka’s labour profile, Siddaramaiah said the state has over 71.18 lakh rural workers, of whom more than 51 per cent are women. He asserted that without MGNREGA, rural wage workers would have faced severe hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chief Minister warned that the VBG Ram G Act would lead to higher unemployment, declining participation of women in the workforce, absence of minimum wage protection, and increased vulnerability for Dalit and Adivasi households. He described the law as detrimental to rural development and village livelihoods.
He also criticised the shift from demand-driven employment to supply-based, contractor-dominated works, stating that the term “contractor” did not exist in the MGNREGA Act but is now being normalised. Large-scale projects such as highways and bridges, he said, cannot replace locally relevant agricultural and asset-creation works earlier taken up under MGNREGA.
Questioning the revised 60:40 Centre-State funding ratio, Siddaramaiah said the change was introduced without consultation with states. He noted that many states are already facing fiscal stress, compounded by delays in the release of central grants and Finance Commission-recommended funds. Karnataka alone, he claimed, has suffered a loss of ₹15,000 crore under the 15th Finance Commission.
The Chief Minister also raised concerns over pending central commitments, citing the Bhadrā Upper-Reach Project, for which ₹5,300 crore was announced in the Union Budget but has not been released so far.
Calling for urgent corrective measures, Siddaramaiah demanded the complete withdrawal of the VBG Ram G Act, restoration of MGNREGA, reinstatement of Panchayat powers, and a nationwide minimum daily wage of ₹400. He also objected to the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme, terming it an affront to Gandhian principles of village self-rule.
The Chief Minister said representations would be sent to the Central Government and the President of India, seeking intervention to protect the constitutional right to employment and decentralised rural governance.
ಇದನ್ನೂ ಓದಿ: ವಿಧಾನಸಭೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಬಿಜಿ ರಾಮ್ ಜಿ ಯೋಜನೆ ವಿರುದ್ಧ ಸಿಎಂ ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯ ತೀವ್ರ ಟೀಕೆ, ಮನರೇಗಾ ಮರುಜಾರಿಗೆ ಒತ್ತಾಯ
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