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The Ministry of Rural Development reported that 1,338 district-level Panch Sammelans have been organised across the country to orient Panchayati Raj representatives and functionaries on the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G, Act, 2025.
More than 5.26 lakh Panchayati Raj representatives, functionaries and officials have taken part, covering all three tiers of the Panchayati Raj system.
Twenty-three States and Union Territories have completed their scheduled Sammelans; Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal went beyond the district level and held them at other administrative levels as well.
The Sammelans cover the Act's specific instruments — the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan (VGPP), the Rural Rozgar Guarantee Card, asset creation, convergence, social audit and grievance redressal.
The Act, in force from 1 July 2026 in place of MGNREGA, places Gram Panchayats at the centre of planning, implementation, monitoring, transparency and social accountability.
To guarantee wage employment to rural households while building durable rural assets, replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. It raises the statutory guarantee from 100 to 125 days of employment a year for every eligible rural household.
Key: Introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16 December 2025 and passed by both Houses on 18 December 2025; brought into force on 1 July 2026, the date from which MGNREGA stood repealed. Works fall under four thematic domains — water security, rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure and mitigation of extreme weather events. It runs as a centrally sponsored scheme with a 60:40 Centre-State cost split for general States and 90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan States, with any spending above the normative allocation borne by the State.
To make the Gram Panchayat the origin of every work taken up under the Act, through participatory, need-based and convergence-oriented planning.
Key: All works must originate in a VGPP prepared by the Gram Panchayat and approved by the Gram Sabha. VGPPs are aggregated upward and integrated with the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, so that local works sit inside the national infrastructure planning framework.
The household's entitlement document under the Act — the instrument through which a rural household registers and claims its guaranteed days of work.
Key: It succeeds the MGNREGA job card, and was distributed to beneficiary households at the Act's national launch. Explaining it to Panchayat functionaries is one of the stated purposes of the Panch Sammelans.
Guaranteed 100 days of unskilled manual wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteered for it — the world's largest employment guarantee programme for two decades.
Key: Enacted in 2005 and launched on 2 February 2006 at Bandlapalli in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, in 200 districts. It was extended to 130 more districts in April 2007 and to all rural districts in April 2008, and renamed from NREGA to MGNREGA on 2 October 2009. It stood repealed from 1 July 2026.
| Aspect | MGNREGA, 2005 | VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Guaranteed days per household per year | 100 days of unskilled manual work | 125 days |
| Entitlement document | Job card | Rural Rozgar Guarantee Card |
| Planning instrument | Works recommended by the Gram Sabha and taken into the Panchayat's annual plan | Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan (VGPP), approved by the Gram Sabha and integrated with the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan |
| Scope of works | A broad list of permissible works, largely water conservation, land development and rural connectivity | Four thematic domains — water security, rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure and mitigation of extreme weather events |
| Unemployment allowance | Payable by the State if work is not provided within 15 days | Retained — payable by the State if work is not provided within 15 days |
| Seasonal pause | No statutory pause | States must announce an advance pause of up to 60 days a year covering peak sowing and harvesting seasons |
| Cost sharing | Centre bore the full unskilled wage cost, with States sharing material and administrative costs | Centrally sponsored scheme — 60:40 for general States, 90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan States, with States bearing spending above the normative allocation |
| Status | Repealed with effect from 1 July 2026 | In force from 1 July 2026 |
The governing statute. Introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16 December 2025, passed by Parliament on 18 December 2025, assented to by President Droupadi Murmu, and brought into force on 1 July 2026. It repealed MGNREGA and vests Gram Panchayats with responsibility for planning, implementation, monitoring, transparency and social accountability.
The Act replaced. Enacted in 2005 as NREGA, launched 2 February 2006, renamed on 2 October 2009, and repealed with effect from 1 July 2026 by notification of the Ministry of Rural Development.
The constitutional foundation for the Panchayati Raj Institutions being trained at the Panch Sammelans. It came into force on 24 April 1993, inserted Part IX ('The Panchayats', Articles 243 to 243-O) and added the Eleventh Schedule listing 29 subjects that may be devolved to Panchayats. It mandates a three-tier structure — village, intermediate and district — in States with a population above 20 lakh, and makes the Gram Sabha the assembly of all registered voters of a village.
A social audit is an examination of a programme's records, works and payments carried out in public by the people the programme is meant to serve, rather than by an external auditor alone. Under the VB-G RAM G Act the Gram Sabha's role in social audit is strengthened, with access to all records, and audits are mandated at least once every six months. It is one of the six subjects the Panch Sammelans are explicitly meant to explain to Panchayat functionaries, alongside the VGPP, the Rural Rozgar Guarantee Card, asset creation, convergence and grievance redressal. The instrument matters because rural employment programmes are vulnerable to ghost workers, inflated muster rolls and unbuilt assets — failures that a financial audit conducted months later in a district headquarters is poorly placed to catch, but that villagers hearing the muster roll read out in the Gram Sabha will recognise at once.
Simple Analogy: A financial auditor checks whether the bill matches the payment. A social audit reads the bill out loud in the village square and asks whether the road it paid for exists.
The nodal ministry for the VB-G RAM G Act. It requested States and UTs to hold the Panch Sammelans, notified the repeal of MGNREGA and the commencement of the new Act from 1 July 2026, and is responsible for the Act's rollout.
The Act's apex oversight body. It provides oversight of implementation and recommends the normative allocation of funds — the ceiling above which any State spending falls on the State exchequer. State Steering Committees oversee convergence with other programmes and the aggregation of plans.
The village assembly that approves the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan and conducts social audits under the Act, with access to all records. It is the constitutional foundation of the entire structure the Panch Sammelans address.
VGPPs are integrated with PM Gati Shakti, so village-level works planned by a Gram Sabha feed into the same national infrastructure planning layer used for large projects — an unusual bottom-to-top linkage in Indian planning.
The 73rd Amendment created Panchayats and listed 29 subjects in the Eleventh Schedule, but devolution of funds, functions and functionaries has been uneven across States. An Act that routes a national employment guarantee through Gram Panchayat plans is a substantial addition to what Panchayats actually control.
Twenty-three States and UTs had completed their Sammelans while others had not — the same variation in administrative capacity that has always shaped rural employment programme outcomes across States.
The Act builds in biometric authentication for transactions, geospatial technology for planning and monitoring, mobile app-based real-time dashboards and weekly public disclosure — the digital counterpart to the Gram Sabha's social audit.
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Rural employment guarantee law and Panchayati Raj devolution are perennial UPSC GS-2 topics; the MGNREGA-to-VB-G RAM G transition makes both Prelims and Mains coverage near-certain in the 2026-27 cycle.
Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) — the Act of 2025 that replaced MGNREGA from 1 July 2026.
The Gram Panchayat's plan, approved by the Gram Sabha, from which every work under the Act must originate.
The household entitlement document under the new Act, successor to the MGNREGA job card.
District-level convention held to orient Panchayati Raj representatives and functionaries on the VB-G RAM G Act; 1,338 held so far with over 5.26 lakh participants.
The schedule added by the 73rd Amendment listing 29 subjects that may be devolved to Panchayats.
Public examination of a programme's records and works by the Gram Sabha; mandated at least once every six months under the Act.