VB-G RAM G Act will prove important in the development of villages: Chief Minister

VB-G RAM G Act will prove important in the development of villages: Chief Minister

Chief Minister Shri Pushkar Singh Dhami, while talking to the media at the Media Centre, Secretariat, on Tuesday, described the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission Rural (VB-G RAM G Act) as historic and said that this new act is not just a change of name for MGNREGA, but a structural restructuring of rural employment policy, through which rural areas and units will be strengthened. He described it as important for making the village developed. He said that this act will prove important in creating a strong foundation for Viksit Bharat through protection to farmers, employment to laborers, respect to women, development of villages and developed villages.

The Chief Minister said that VB-G RAM G, along with providing development-based guarantees, will now provide rural families the right to employment for 125 days instead of 100, which will be 25% more than before. Under this, a system has been created to mandatorily provide unemployment allowance if work is not available within 15 days; along with this, the responsibility of the official has also been fixed. He informed that the payment made under this system will be weekly and a provision for compensation has been made in case of delay.

The Chief Minister said that technology-based transparency has been maintained in the works carried out under VB-G RAM G. Provisions have been made for the use of various technologies such as biometric attendance, geo-tagging and GIS mapping, mobile app and public dashboard, AI-based fraud detection and mandatory social audit twice a year. The use of all these technologies makes this scheme a corruption-free employment guarantee scheme.

The Chief Minister said that the protection of farmer interests has been clearly ensured in VB-G RAM G. During the sowing and harvesting seasons of farming, the work of the scheme can be legally stopped for a maximum of 60 days. Due to this, farmers will not face a shortage of labourers and the cost of farming will also not increase, while the rural economy will remain balanced.

The Chief Minister said that real power has been provided to the Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha under VB-G RAM G. He said that work will not be imposed in this scheme; rather, the identification of development works will be decided by the Gram Sabha itself. He said at least 50% of the work can be carried out directly at the level of Gram Panchayats. Under this, tasks like job cards, registration and scheme formulation will be decided at the local level of the Gram Sabha.

The Chief Minister said that special provisions have been kept for the quality and utility of work under VB-G RAM G. Under this, works coming under water conservation, rural infrastructure, livelihood assets and disaster management will now be done. This will mainly include works like ponds, check dams, stop dams, roads, drains, schools, hospitals, SHG sheds, skill centers, haats, retaining walls, drainage and pitching. This will provide work to everyone and also strengthen the village.

The Chief Minister said that special focus has been given to women empowerment under VB-G RAM G. Skill centers, shed construction, rural haats, etc., will be built for sisters associated with self-help groups so that women will get employment in the village itself.

The Chief Minister said that the administrative structure has been strengthened under VB-G RAM G. He said that Gram Rozgar Sahayak, Field Assistants, Technical Assistants, etc., are the backbone of this scheme. For their training, honorarium and monitoring, the administrative expenditure has been increased from 6% to 9%. Because of this, the quality of work will increase, payment will be on time and monitoring will be strengthened.

The Chief Minister said that attention has also been paid to fair financial management under VB-G RAM G. In this, the ratio has been made 60:40 for general states and 90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern states. Under this, there will now be a provision for a clear annual budget, in which there used to be uncertainty earlier. *The Chief Minister said that under this act, a Himalayan state like Uttarakhand will get 90 percent financial support from the Central Government, due to which there will be no additional burden on the state and the development of rural areas will happen more rapidly.*

*The Chief Minister said that VB-G RAM G is extremely important for the state of Uttarakhand. As a mountainous and disaster-sensitive state, it will also play an important role in water conservation, disaster management and rural infrastructure in Uttarakhand. This act, along with making the villages of Uttarakhand self-reliant and safe, will provide more strength to the development of Gram Sabhas.*

The Chief Minister said that according to the analysis done by SBI, states will get a net benefit of about ₹17,000 crore from this act. Chief Minister said that this scheme is not anti-poor but an attack on the root causes of poverty. The Chief Minister said that in VB-G RAM G, workers will get more days of work, will get wages at the scheduled time, legal accountability will be fixed and there will be technology-based transparency.

On this occasion, Rajya Sabha MP Shri Mahendra Bhatt and MLA Shri Dalip Rawat were present.