PATNA, May 31 -- Ahead of the nationwide roll out of the new Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act rural employment scheme is set for July 1, the Bihar government is gearing up to frame norms for the launch of the scheme on the same date, the officials in the rural development department (RDD) said. According to officials, the nod for the rules is likely in the cabinet meeting next week. The state rules will be based on the norms set by the Centre and the rules could be announced by the next week itself, officials added. "The draft rules are set to be issued for the new scheme in the state soon. Preparations are going on and the format of the rules are likely to be similar to the draft rules promulgated for the VB G RAM G scheme by the Centre. The rollout of the scheme will be as the national date, July 1," said a senior RDD official aware of the details about the launch of the new scheme. Principal secretary, RDD, Pankaj Kumar, also confirmed that a proposal for notification of the scheme would be sent to the state cabinet for approval. "I can say that the VB G RAM G scheme would be rolled out in Bihar from July 1. All the things required for rolling out the new scheme will be done to ensure that," said Kumar. Officials said that under the draft rules set by the Bihar government, there would be provision for grievance redressal and other provisions as like the central draft rules. Officials in the RDD said that the rules will be for state employment guarantee council to be headed by the chief minister while there would be also state steering committee, to be headed by chief secretary. There would be also rules guiding unemployment allowance, records and audit rules just like the central draft rules, issued recently, said an RDD official. "The law department and finance department as well as other departments are vetting the proposal for notifying the VB G RAM G scheme. It is likely to go to the cabinet by next week tentatively for approval. The draft rules are also being vetted by the law department and could be issued next week," said an official source. He said once the draft rules are issued and put in public domain, there would be sufficient time given to general people and stake holders to give their suggestions and any objections as per the norms. Under the new scheme, 125 days of work per rural household would be provided, as against the prevailing entitlement of 100 days of guaranteed work under the MGNREGA and there would be focussed nature of work to be given to workers as rural infrastructure, water conservation works, livelihood infrastructure and climate resilience, etc. Besides, there would be a pause of 60 days of work during peak sowing and harvesting seasons so that there is no shortage of labourers for farm activity. However, officials said the annual target of mandays as existing in MGNREGA would change a bit under the new scheme with normative allocation for workdays meaning thereby that the states would have to generate mandays as per the allocation of funds by using objective parameters so that there is higher employment generation unlike what was in the MGNREGA, where the mandays creation was demand-driven with wage component being directly funded by the Centre. In the new scheme, the wage component has to be shared in the 60:40 ratio between the Centre and states. In case the state goes higher than the normative allocation, the expenditure on the additional work done under the new scheme would have to borne by the states, officials said. In Bihar, the demand for work under MGNREGA in recent years has been in the range of 220 million to 250 million mandays annually leading to an expenditure of around Rs.7,000 to Rs.8,000 crore on wages, which were fully given by the Centre, as per official sources....