Sangrur/Chandigarh, Dec. 20 -- Amid uproar over the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) or VB-G RAM G Bill that seeks to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday said the state government would convene a special assembly session on the issue in the second week of January. "The central government wants to discontinue the MGNREGS with new rules. Financial onus on the state government has been increased," he said. The CM was in his native village (Satoj) in Sangrur for an interaction with residents. Mann said the central government was dismantling the scheme's core structure. He said 125 days of work has been promised under the new Bill but workers have been restricted from participating in essential irrigation and construction projects. Mann said work related to irrigation, construction of school or mandi cannot be undertaken under it, claiming that restrictions have been imposed under the proposed law. "Village ponds can now be cleaned once in five years," the CM claimed. "Earlier, the Centre was contributing 90% and the states 10% in the MGNREGS. Now, they (Centre) say they have raised it to 125 days (of employment) in which the Centre will contribute 60% and the states will pay 40%. From where the states will bring money," he asked. "Name is not an issue, but the scheme's structure is. Workers do not care about the name of the scheme. Work is what matters to them," he said. The Lok Sabha had passed the Bill by a voice vote on Thursday, drawing uproar from the opposition camp. Notably, the new scheme proposes to provide a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work, up from 100 days under MGNREGS. Slamming the Centre for Agniveer scheme, Mann said it was purely unconstitutional and defeated the very purpose of the army. "Punjab has produced a number of bravehearts who made the supreme sacrifice to protect the country," he noted. Mann said that as the custodian of Punjab, he stood to secure the state's rights and would oppose such cynical moves vehemently. Regarding employment, the CM said government jobs were available without any corruption or nepotism. "Since March 2022, more than 58,000 youths have been provided government jobs. There are several families where two or even three members have secured employment," he said. Protesters from Dalit and Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (Punjab), Bhai Lalo Punjabi Manch and the Lal Jhanda MGNREGA Workers' Union gathered outside the residence of chief minister Bhagwant Mann in Sangrur to oppose the central government's move on the MGNREGS and also the controversial Electricity Bill 2025. Jugraj Singh Tallewal, leader of the Dalit and Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, and Paramjit Kaur, leader of the Lal Jhanda MGNREGA Workers Union, said the central government was "dismantling" pro-people schemes. "The central government has drastically shifted the financial burden to state governments," they said. They said that if such moves weren't rolled back, the protest would be intensified nationwide....