Ranchi | Jharkhand BJP President and Leader of the Opposition on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on the Congress party during a press conference held at the BJP state office. He said that Congress earlier objected to slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” and even the word “Ram”, and now it has started opposing the G-Ram-Ji scheme as well.
Marandi said this clearly reflects the confusion, frustration and negative mindset of the Congress party. “Congress is deliberately trying to mislead the public by creating unnecessary controversy over the name and intent of the G-Ram-Ji scheme,” he alleged.
Explaining the vision behind the scheme, Marandi said that G-Ram-Ji stands for Antyodaya, welfare of villages, the poor, farmers and labourers. “It represents Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of Ram Rajya and aims at corruption-free rural development,” he said.
He alleged that MGNREGA had turned into a major centre of corruption over the years and that schemes were not being implemented properly on the ground despite several reform attempts. “When fraud and corruption reached extreme levels and the situation failed to improve, the Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister decided to introduce the Developed India G-Ram-Ji scheme to fulfil the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047,” Marandi said.
Marandi claimed that Jharkhand became a glaring example of MGNREGA corruption. He cited the Khunti district case involving embezzlement of ₹24 crore, which resulted in a senior IAS officer being sent to jail. He alleged that similar scams were exposed in almost all districts of Jharkhand. He further claimed that during the financial year 2025–26, monitoring across 23 states revealed that many works existed only on paper and had no physical presence on the ground. Large-scale use of machines in labour-intensive works and commission-based corruption of up to 40 percent were also reported, he alleged.
He said that after the COVID-19 pandemic, only 7.61 percent of families could complete 100 days of employment under MGNREGA. Despite nearly 99 percent e-payments, digital attendance was not properly recorded, leading to continued fund misappropriation and poor execution of projects.
Marandi said that to address these shortcomings and to realise the dream of a developed India, a new law was required. Accordingly, the Developed India Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission (Rural) has been introduced. He described it as an advanced and expanded version of the 20-year-old MGNREGA, guaranteeing 125 days of employment instead of 100 days to rural workers.
He explained that the new Act focuses on four key areas:
- Water conservation and related infrastructure,
- Rural basic infrastructure, including roads connecting villages to markets,
- Employment-generating works such as storage infrastructure, and
- Climate-resilient works to reduce environmental risks like soil erosion, water conservation and flood control.
Marandi said the Act ensures greater transparency, planning and accountability through AI-based fraud detection, central and state-level monitoring committees, GPS-based mobile monitoring, weekly public disclosure and mandatory social audits twice a year in every panchayat.
He added that the interests of both farmers and labourers have been protected. The Act provides a 60-day no-work period during peak agricultural seasons so that labourers can earn higher wages in farming activities while farmers get timely manpower. For the remaining period, a guarantee of 125 days of work has been ensured, along with a provision for unemployment allowance if work is not provided. The Centre–State cost-sharing ratio has been fixed at 60:40.
Targeting Congress further, Marandi said the party is anti-village, anti-poor and anti-farmer. “Congress is uncomfortable because corruption is being curbed, labourers will now get 125 days of work instead of 100, unemployment allowance will be paid if work is not provided, and even the word ‘Ram’ appears in the scheme,” he said.
He asserted that BJP workers will take the benefits of the new Act to the people and expose Congress’s misinformation campaign at the grassroots level.
Senior BJP leaders including State Vice President Rakesh Prasad, Kisan Morcha State President Pawan Sahu, State Spokesperson Pratul Shah Deo and Co-Media In-charge Yogendra Pratap Singh were also present at the press conference.
