Jaipur, Jan. 8 -- Chief minister Bhajanlal Sharma on Wednesday accused the Congress of deliberately spreading misinformation on the Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, calling it a strong model of cooperative federalism through 40% participation by states. Addressing newspersons in the chief minister's office, Sharma said the landmark legislation, introduced under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a decisive step towards ensuring rural employment and livelihoods. He said the Act would enable creation of permanent and high-quality assets in rural areas, align rural employment policy with the Viksit Bharat roadmap, and significantly benefit Rajasthan. Criticising the earlier MGNREGA framework, Sharma said the scheme failed to achieve its objectives due to weak administration and corruption during Congress rule. He alleged that public funds were misused and most works undertaken were not aligned with holistic village development plans. Temporary roads, incomplete water structures and unplanned earthwork, he said, lacked long-term utility. Sharma further pointed out that fake and duplicate job cards, bogus beneficiaries, fabricated attendance and irregular wage payments plagued the scheme, while the absence of a strong verification mechanism rendered social audits ineffective. The chief minister said the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 addresses all these shortcomings. Under the new law, the legal guarantee of employment has been increased from 100 to 125 days annually. Recognising that farmers and labourers are complementary to each other, he said states have been empowered to declare a 60-day work pause during peak agricultural seasons so workers can benefit more from farming activities. He said the scheme will focus on durable and meaningful works related to water resources, core rural infrastructure, livelihood infrastructure and disaster management. Transparency will be ensured through geo-tagging, satellite imagery, mobile applications and artificial intelligence. Sharma said weekly wage payments have been made mandatory, with automatic compensation in case of delays beyond two weeks. Highlighting the financial structure, he said the Act is based on a sustainable and accountable funding model with a clearly defined annual budget. The demand-driven nature of employment will continue, and states are expected to receive an additional allocation of up to Rs.17,000 crore, he said. Rejecting Congress criticism, Sharma said the party is attempting to mislead people by claiming reduced work under the new law, whereas in reality, development will now be carried out in a planned manner based on actual village needs. Commenting on it, Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi accused the BJP-led government of effectively dismantling the MGNREGA scheme and replacing it with a new law that curtails the right to work for rural people. He alleged that under the new legislation, employment will be provided only at locations identified by the central government and that too subject to the Centre allocating funds and the states having sufficient budgetary resources....