New Delhi, Dec 18: The Lok Sabha descended into pandemonium on Thursday as Union Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan attempted to deliver the government’s reply on the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025 (VB-G RAM-G Bill), amid relentless sloganeering and protests from the opposition benches.

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal urgently pressed Speaker Om Birla to refer the Bill — which proposes replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with a framework guaranteeing 125 days of wage employment annually — to a Standing Committee or Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for thorough examination.

The Speaker rejected the plea, highlighting that the Bill had already been debated for over eight hours, extending late into the previous night.

Defying the uproar, Minister Chouhan pressed on with his speech, emphasising enhanced provisions under the new legislation.

“With a whopping allocation and more employment opportunities, we are creating provisions for fully developed (sampoorna viksit) villages — this is the Modi government’s objective,” he stated.

The Bill’s name itself reflects its guarantee of employment and improved livelihoods, he added, aligning it with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision.

Minister Chouhan portrayed the initiative as building a prosperous India, with plans for ideal villages equipped with all basic amenities, employment, better livelihoods, and facilities right at the village level, in line with the Viksit Bharat @2047 goal.

“PM Modi has envisioned a slew of amenities for self-reliant villages,” he asserted, undeterred by interruptions.

He also said that the Congress party had curtailed the budget from Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 35,000 crore, “while we will spend more than Rs 95,000 crore under the new scheme”.

The Bill has drawn sharp criticism from the Opposition for allegedly weakening MGNREGA’s demand-driven guarantees, shifting costs to states, and removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name — a move decried as an insult to the Father of the Nation. Supporters, however, counter that it modernises rural empowerment, boosts days from 100 to 125, and promotes convergence for infrastructure and saturation coverage.

Kolkata, Dec 18: The winter session of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly is unlikely to take place within the current calendar year due to the pressure from the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the upcoming festive season, sources said on Thursday.

The second phase of the SIR exercise began on Tuesday with the publication of the draft voters’ list.

“First, the elected legislators are very busy with the ongoing SIR-related activities in areas under the jurisdiction of their respective Assembly constituencies. Secondly, the festive season is starting with Christmas on December 25, which again will engage the legislators with mass contact exercises in their respective constituencies. Taking these two factors into consideration, it is unlikely that the winter session will be held this year,” an insider from the West Bengal Assembly secretariat said.

Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee has also confirmed that he has not received any communication from the state government on convening the session. He added that several legislators have requested that the winter session not be convened immediately because of their involvement in the electoral roll revision exercise.

According to sources in the Assembly secretariat, there is a possibility that a short winter session may be held in January next year, followed by an interim Budget session in February.

“However, nothing is final as yet,” the sources said.

The Assembly last met in September this year, when a three-day special session was convened.

The winter session, whenever held, is expected to draw attention as former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee is likely to attend the House for the first time in nearly three years. Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in July 2022 in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school jobs scam.

Since his arrest, Chatterjee has been suspended from the Trinamool Congress and would attend the session as an Independent legislator. The session would also see the presence of Humayun Kabir, the suspended Trinamool rebel MLA from the Bharatpur Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, who will also sit as an Independent. The TMC suspended Kabir early this month after he decided to go ahead with the plan to lay the foundation of a Babri Masjid-style mosque in Murshidabad district on December 6, defying the party’s instructions.

Mumbai, Dec 18: Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the Mahayuti government following reports of a debt-ridden farmer from Maharashtra allegedly selling his kidney in Cambodia to repay moneylenders.

The party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ editorial, titled “The Disgrace of the Soil”, described the incident not just as a crime, but as a “stain on the conscience of a state that calls itself progressive”.

The Thackeray camp, by linking this tragedy to the upcoming municipal elections, warned the “Marathi Manoos” that a government that cannot protect the physical integrity of its farmers cannot be trusted to protect the capital of the state. “Today it is a kidney; tomorrow, if these looters are not stopped, they will put the entire state up for auction,” it claimed.

The editorial highlighted the harrowing case of Roshan Sadashiv Kude, a farmer from Chandrapur in the Vidarbha region. After suffering total crop failure on his four-acre plot and losing his cattle to disease, Kude fell into a debt trap. Despite selling half his land, his tractor, and household belongings, he remained unable to meet the extortionate daily interest demands of Rs 10,000 imposed by local moneylenders.

The editorial noted with horror that it was the moneylender who allegedly “advised” and facilitated the farmer’s journey to Cambodia to sell his organ. “In the land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, where farmers should be protected, they are being auctioned piece by piece in foreign lands,” claimed the editorial.

The Thackeray camp has accused the state administration of being “intoxicated by power” while ignoring the rural crisis. It pointed out that while the government is busy with “event management” and announcing pre-election schemes (Government Resolutions), the agricultural backbone of the state is collapsing. “The Deputy Chief Minister speaks of ‘New Maharashtra,’ but in this ‘New Maharashtra,’ a farmer has to cross international borders to sell his kidney to keep his family alive. The “administrative dacoity” regarding municipal looting has now extended to the very bodies of the poor,” it alleged.

The editorial slammed the police administration, saying that had it taken the action against the four money lenders, who have now been under arrest, in time, the farmer’s life could not have been devastated. At the national level, farmers are reeling under a debt burden of a whopping Rs 12 lakh crore, of which farmers from Maharashtra are bearing the burden of Rs eight lakh crore. It is so ironic that the Centre, which writes off the debt of industries, is not giving much-needed relief to farmers by providing a crop loan waiver, which is forcing the farmers to commit suicide.

According to the editorial, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had given a promise of crop loan waiver before the state Assembly elections, but now he has forgotten it after assuming power.

The Thackeray camp has demanded an immediate and “merciless” action against the moneylenders and the international syndicate involved in the kidney racket.

It has called for a high-level probe into the international organ trafficking links between Maharashtra and Cambodia, a debt waiver and an immediate audit of private moneylending practices in Vidarbha and Marathwada. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has demanded the resignation of the Agriculture Minister over this failure of the state’s safety net.