Bengaluru, Jan 23 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that BJP’s ally, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s concerns on the Viksit Bharat – Grameen Rozgar and Migration Guarantee Act (VB-G RAM G) validate the opposition stand and termed the development as politically significant.

Taking to social media X, CM Siddaramaiah stated on Friday, “The reports that the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu, has raised concerns with the Union Government over the implementation of the VB-G RAM G Act – especially regarding the altered funding pattern and the additional burden on states – are politically significant and consequential for Centre–State relations.”

These concerns are important as they come from a key ally of the BJP, whose support is critical to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government, he pointed out.

For months, the Congress party and Opposition-ruled states, including Karnataka, have warned that the VB-G RAM G Act weakens cooperative federalism by shifting financial responsibility onto states. A BJP ally now echoing these concerns exposes a clear rupture within the NDA and undermines the BJP’s defence of the law. The Union Government and the BJP must explain why the same objections were earlier dismissed as political criticism, he noted.

The contrast between the two laws is clear. Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), rural employment was a legal right backed by assured central funding. Under the new Act, that certainty is lost. States are required to implement the programme while sharing the cost, without any statutory guarantee of funds. What was once a guaranteed right of the people has been reduced to a matter of negotiation, CM Siddaramaiah stated.

He further stated that this shift has serious implications. When a Chief Minister is compelled to seek “alternative financial support” through private discussions, it signals that access to funds is being determined by bargaining power rather than by law. In the present political context, this raises the risk that allocations may be influenced by political alignment, adversely affecting Opposition-ruled states, including Karnataka.

If NDA partners, especially the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, find the new framework unsustainable, these concerns must be raised openly in Parliament. They cannot be addressed through selective concessions or private assurances, he said.

The developments reported on Friday make it clear that the VB-G RAM G Act must be repealed and the MGNREGA Act restored, with necessary reforms. Employment security cannot be converted into a negotiable arrangement. Cooperative federalism must be sustained through guaranteed funding and equal treatment of all states – not through uncertainty and coalition arithmetic, CM Siddaramaiah said.

Earlier, media reports stated that in a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, CM Naidu said the revised funding ratio for VB-G RAM G was leading to an additional burden on the state and sought assistance from the Centre for enforcing the new rural jobs law.

–IANS

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