New rural jobs scheme a step in the right direction

It incorporates the lessons learnt from 20 years of operational experience under MNREGS and makes it into an effective social security net

- Rajiv Kumar

There are some policy actions that would normally be given the benefit of the doubt and not be seen ab initio as either a conspiracy to serve an obscure political agenda or consciously designed to make an existing scheme less effective. I would have thought that the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar And Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) is such a policy legislation.

In all other democracies with a mature opposition, VB-G RAM G would have received bipartisan support and all state governments, irrespective of their political affiliations, would get on with the job of the effective implementation of the revised scheme. But alas, not so in our country.

Those who see a Right-wing conspiracy in every government action have raised the cry that the name has been changed such that the acronym G RAM G is included. This, it is assumed, will become the default title of the scheme and serve a particular political agenda. The default usage could as easily be GRAMIN, which already finds mention in some government press releases. And it sounds far more appropriate, referring as it does to a rural scheme. To avoid any possible controversy, we may be better off with standardising the use of GRAMIN as an acronym for the revamped scheme.