Hyderabad, Dec. 21 -- Senior Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao on Sunday criticised the Centre's proposed VB-G RAM G Bill, alleging that the government has diluted the spirit of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by removing Mahatma Gandhi's name and shifting the financial burden onto states.

He alleged that the Centre was weakening a scheme that had helped reduce poverty and suicides, and said replacing NREGA with a 'Ram' scheme would do injustice to the poor.

Speaking to ANI, Rao said, "When people in the country were dying of hunger, seeing this, Sonia Gandhi and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to introduce NREGA. After 20 years, the current government has replaced it with a new scheme in ...