New Delhi [India], December 16 (ANI): Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saugata Roy accused the Union government of deliberately avoiding a discussion on West Bengal while 'repeatedly misleading the House' over pending dues under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), triggering a coordinated walkout from Parliament by opposition parties during the ongoing winter session on Monday.

'The Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) avoided speaking on West Bengal as she knew that she would be challenged,' Roy told reporters. 'We walked out in protest, and the Congress and the Samajwadi Party also did the same. The Union Finance Minister is repeatedly misleading the House on Bengal's dues on the MGNREGA,' he said.

Roy also responded to questions on the government's move to introduce the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, which seeks to replace the existing MGNREGA framework. On the proposed renaming of the flagship rural employment scheme, the TMC MP said the party would articulate its position once the bill is formally taken up. 'We shall speak on that when the bill comes up for consideration. The bill may come up tomorrow, and only then will we speak,' he said.

The government argues that the new bill aligns rural employment and infrastructure creation with the broader Viksit Bharat 2047 vision. According to official outlines, the proposed legislation aims to focus on empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation to build a resilient rural economy. It proposes aggregating public works into a Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, prioritising water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-linked projects, and climate-resilient initiatives.

A key feature of the bill is the enhancement of guaranteed wage employment from 100 days to 125 days per rural household. It also seeks to ensure adequate availability of farm labour during peak agricultural seasons and mandates Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans for integrated, saturation-driven local planning. These plans are proposed to be linked with PM Gati Shakti through geospatial systems and digital public infrastructure.

The draft bill also envisages a modern digital governance framework, incorporating biometric authentication, GPS- and mobile-based monitoring, real-time dashboards and the use of Artificial Intelligence tools for planning, auditing and fraud risk mitigation.

Earlier, TMC MP Sagarika Ghose strongly criticised the move, calling the renaming of MGNREGA an 'insult' to Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and West Bengal, intensifying the political confrontation ahead of the bill's introduction in Parliament. (ANI)