PATNA, June 28 -- Ahead of the formal rollout of the Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G, job guarantee scheme from July 1 for rural households in place of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Bihar is hoping to create over 200 million man-days in the next nine months. The interim allocation under the new scheme stands at an estimated Rs.11,200 crore until March 31, 2027, which is one of the highest allocations for the state so far, officials in the rural development department (RDD) said. "Our allocation is higher under the VB-G RAM G scheme and there are all indications we will be able to generate at least 200 million man-days or more from the fund allocations. In MGNREGS too, we had more or less the same target," said a senior RDD official. Other officials said that under the VB-G RAM G scheme, the funding ratio is 60:40, meaning the central government would provide an estimated Rs.6,700 crore while the state would provide an estimated Rs.4,477 crore out of the total interim fund allocation of around Rs.11,200 crore for next nine months. Bihar having generated 550 million mandays until the first week of June and also nearing the target of generating another 22.5 million to 25 million man-days by June 30 (against the target of generating 85 million mandays as per sanction under MGNREGA from April 1 to June 30), is expected to receive an estimated Rs.3,000 crore for wages and other costs under the existing rural job guarantee scheme, officials said. "In that way, Bihar's fund allocation for this financial year is going to be around Rs.14,000 crore plus in both the MGNREGS and VB-G RAM G schemes," said another RDD official, seeking anonymity. MGNREGS commissioner Ananya Singh said that the man-days would be higher in the state because the normative allocation under the VB-G RAM G scheme is quite high for the state. "We expect to generate higher man-days as the fund allocation is significant," Singh said, adding that the state government has already notified the scheme and all old job cards under MGNREGS would be valid for the new job scheme for rural households. More importantly, the MGNREGS commissioner said payments to job seekers under the VB-G RAM G scheme would be done through the SNA-SPARSH system. Schemes approved by gram panchayats for the new job scheme would be integrated with line departments and also with PM GATI Shakti for better monitoring. The VB-G RAM G scheme, which promises 125 days of work per rural household with job cards, differs from MGNREGS in some ways. For instance, man-day generation would depend mostly on the budgetary allocation to states unlike in MGREGS, which is a demand-driven job scheme where expenditure on wages to job seekers was totally reimbursed by the centre. "For Bihar, VB-G RAM G would be more beneficial as it promises 125 days of work to rural households instead of 100 days under MGNREGS. Those seeking unskilled work in rural areas-be it infra projects, roads or irrigation systems-would benefit," maintained another official. RDD officials said that the idea of integrating scheme/projects approved by gram panchayats with line departments and also with PM GATI Shakti is to avoid duplication of work and establish a single, comprehensive planning system. This allows all works under the VB-G RAM G scheme as well as projects run under other schemes, to be monitored closely through central and state monitoring systems. "This is a new concept where all rural schemes will have better central monitoring. Integrating and linking schemes with the PM GATI SHAKTI master plan would help check duplication of work like digging ponds, infra projects, etc as one can easily ascertain which department is doing which scheme including those taken up under VB G-RAM G," said another RDD official. Meanwhile, RDD officials said all legal and administrative work has been completed ahead of the rollout of VB-G RAM G in the state and across the country from July 1....