CITU conference condemns VB-G RAM G, SHANTI Acts, Labour Codes

The 18th All India Conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) passed a resolution demanding the repeal of the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, termed the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, and urged the restoration and strengthening of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), with enhanced work days and wages, alongside funding ensured by the Centre.

Addressing the media here on Thursday (January 1, 2026) to announce the resolutions and deliberations on the second day of the conference, CITU general secretary Tapan Sen said the VB-G RAM G Act was a retrograde enactment of the Centre, which had resulted in the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, and “totally mutilated and annihilated the legal right of rural households to employment guarantee and unemployment allowance”, leaving it to the mercy and discretion of governments.

“It has overturned the statutory right and entitlement into a discretionary scheme, along with imposing financial and administrative burden on the State governments, undermining the federal structure of the Constitution,” Mr. Sen said.

By imposing the burden of 40% of the cost on State governments, the scheme would be watered down as there might not be enough revenue with the State governments to pay their share, he said. MGNREGA had been functioning smoothly since 2005, and the new Act was against the federal structure of the country, he said.

Moreover, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre had brought about Labour Codes that were “nothing but an attack on the rights of workers”, Mr. Sen said.

The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant had not been privatised only because of agitations by workers over the past five years, he said. “The Centre has brought Labour Codes to suppress workers, and the Centre does not want any labour unions to exist. The working class should continue their agitation against the policies of the government,” Mr. Sen said.

CITU passed another resolutiion condemning the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act, 2025, which was rushed through Parliament, repealing the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010.

“The Act is a dangerous, anti-people and anti-sovereignty legislation that opens India’s most hazardous and strategic energy sector to private and foreign corporate interests. It dilutes safety, accountability, democratic oversight and workers’ rights. This conference demands the immediate repeal of the Act in its entirety,” the CITU resolution said.