“The income of rural people will increase under the GI RAM Act,” said Minister Tinku Roy.

The Central Government has enacted a new law named GI-RAM-G by changing the name of the MGNREGA scheme. Oppositional political parties have launched protests against this move, citing the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the RREGA scheme along with several other reasons. The BJP has alleged that opposition parties have also carried out misinformation campaigns in the state on this issue, which has led to confusion among the public.

To clear this confusion, BJP press conferences are being held district by district across the state as per the directions of the party’s central leadership. On Friday, a similar press conference was organised at the Pradesh BJP office. During the conference, Minister Tinku Roy spoke in detail about the new law.

He said that change and evolution have been ongoing in the country since independence. Immediately after independence, a scheme called the Rural Manpower Programme (RMP) was introduced with the objective of providing employment to rural labourers and strengthening the rural economy. In 1971, RMP was modified and renamed the CSRE Programme. In 1980, it was again changed to the National Rural Employment Programme (NREP). In 1989, it was restructured as the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP). In 1993, the name was changed to the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS). In 2001, it became the Food for Work Programme, and later in the same year, it was renamed Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana. In 2005, the law was amended and introduced as MGNREGA.

The Minister said that after nearly 20 years, in 2025, the MGNREGA Act has been amended and renamed the GI-RAM-G Act. This change has been made in keeping with evolving lifestyles and present-day needs. Under the new law, priority has been given to four key aspects of rural development: water conservation, improvement of rural connectivity, creation of durable rural assets, and climate-resilient works. He stated that these components were not included under MGNREGA earlier.

He further informed that under the new law, job card holders will now receive 125 days of work instead of the earlier 100 days per year. As a result, the income of rural people is expected to increase by nearly 25 percent.

During the press conference, Minister Tinku Roy said that opposition parties are deliberately misleading the public by concealing these facts. He asserted that no leniency will be shown towards the creation of such confusion regarding the GI-RAM-G Act.