Civil society groups and rural employment activists have criticised the Union Budget’s allocations for rural job schemes, alleging that the government has offered little clarity on the transition from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to the new Viksit Bharat‑Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB‑GRAMG) framework, and that the promised 125 days of employment cannot be financed with the outlay provided.
Union Budget 2026: VB-G RAM G gets ₹95,692.31 crore; experts warn it falls far short of allocation needed to guarantee 125 workdays
The Budget has earmarked ₹95,692.31 crore for VB‑GRAMG and ₹30,000 crore for MGNREGS, taking the combined allocation for the two rural employment heads to ₹1,25,692.31 crore, which the government has projected as a 43% increase over the Revised Estimate (RE) of ₹88,000 crore for MGNREGS in 2025‑26.
Budget 2026 Explained
However, Nikhil Dey, founder member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and a key architect of MGNREGS, said the Budget “creates confusion about the transition to the new law and its real implications.” He argued that the ₹30,000 crore provision for MGNREGS is particularly opaque. “While it has not been made clear what the ₹30,000 crores allocation to MGNREGA is meant to fund,” he said, adding it may be used either to clear liabilities and wind down the programme or to run a short transition period.
