VB-G RAM G SCHEME | Restore funding pattern, Gandhi's name: TN Govt to Centre

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has urged the Union government to revise the funding pattern of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission–Gramin (VB-G RAM G) and retain the name of Mahatma Gandhi in the rural employment scheme.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay said the revised funding pattern would impose an additional financial burden of more than Rs 5,000 crore annually on the State.

Referring to the new guidelines, the Chief Minister said the scheme now mandates a 60:40 cost-sharing ratio between the Union and State governments across wage, material and administrative components.

He requested the Centre to restore the earlier funding pattern by bearing 100 per cent of the wage and administrative costs, while sharing the material component in a 75:25 ratio between the Union and State governments.

The Chief Minister also raised concerns over the provision requiring States to notify a fixed 60-day period every financial year during peak sowing and harvesting seasons, when employment under the scheme would remain suspended.

Instead, he suggested that district collectors should be empowered to determine the peak agricultural period based on local conditions rather than through a uniform advance notification.

Vijay further urged the Centre to permit the use of wage employment under the scheme for State-sponsored rural housing programmes, stating that such a provision would significantly accelerate the implementation of housing projects in rural areas. He also appealed to the Union government to continue the rural employment programme under the name of Mahatma Gandhi.