By Dr. Gyan Pathak
The Calcutta High Court order has miserably failed to get Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme started from August 1, 2025. The Centre has stopped releasing funds to the state under this scheme since 2022, though it is the only employment guarantee scheme for the rural workers who are unable to find any work anywhere. Moreover, the Centre shows no sign to allow the scheme in near future.
PM Narendra Modi and CM Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal are still at loggerheads on account of political reasons. Elections in West Bengal are due next year before May 7, when the term of the Vidhan Sabha is to expire. PM Modi has been targeting to throw CM Banerjee out of power. MGNREGA scheme is being seen a victim to this political rivalry, in which workers are suffering. Mamata Banerjee has been claiming that the Centre is not releasing fund for the scheme, while Modi government has been alleging that due to large scale corruption in the scheme, they have stopped releasing funds.
On June 18, a division bench of Calcutta High court led by TS Sivagnanam had given direction of resumption of MGNREGA is West Bengal from August 1. It had drawn a line between past actions and future steps to be taken to implement the scheme while resolving the three-year imbroglio. The bench had pointed out that the MGNREGA “does not envisage a situation where the scheme will be put to cold storage for eternity.”
Nevertheless, Union Minister of Rural Development, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said on August 4, that is three days after the scheme was to be restarted as per the order of the Calcutta High Court, that the West Bengal government has badly failed in effective implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Between 2019 and 2022, central teams investigated 19 districts of West Bengal and found massive irregularities in MGNREGA works. These included no actual work at the workplace, splitting of works in violation of rules, and serious issues like misappropriation of funds. As a result, the Ministry of Rural Development had to stop releasing funds to West Bengal under Section 27 of the MGNREGA Act.
Union Minister Chouhan said that in the case of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana too, complaints were received that the state government selected ineligible families, removed eligible ones and changed the name of the scheme while disregarding the rules. All these complaints were found to be correct by national and central monitoring teams. He further said that despite repeated requests, the West Bengal state government has not taken any concrete steps for reform or transparency. Unfortunately, the West Bengal government has completely failed in trust, responsibility, and transparency.
Though Chauhan said that the central government was and will remain committed to the development, welfare, and rights of the people of West Bengal, he gave no word about restarting the MGNREGA again. Nevertheless, he said that the central government is fully committed to the development of West Bengal, the welfare of villages, the poor and workers, and bringing positive change in their lives. He said that from 2014-15 till now, the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, alone has given more than Rs1.10 lakh crore to West Bengal through various schemes.
It is worth recalling that the Centre, by invoking section 27 of the MGNREGA, 2005, had stopped release of funds to West Bengal with effect from March 9, 2022 “due to non-compliance of directives of Central Government.” The work under the scheme has completely stopped thereafter, while workers of the state are forced to migrate for their livelihood, facing all sorts of predicaments, including arrests and detention in the BJP ruled states if they are Bengali speaking Muslims in the name of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.
It was on July 22, the Union Minister Chauhan had told the Lok Sabha that the order of the Calcutta High Court to restart implementation of the MGNREGA in West Bengal is “being studied in the Ministry to decide further course of action.”
West Bengal has been demanding release of funds under the scheme ever since it was stopped on the ground of alleged corruption. Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has been alleging that PM Narendra Modi has been unfairly targeting his state to show the ruling establishment in bad light and to defame it among the rural working people who are by and large supporter of TMC.
Before the Centre suspended the MGNREGA scheme in the state in March 2022, rural families of the states in the range of 51-80 lakh were availing the scheme between 2014-15 and 2021-22. It was top performer state in the country. Then Centre stopped the fund alleging corruption. The number of the beneficiaries show the real state of predicaments of the rural workers who were denied work under the scheme.
There have been numerous meetings between the Centre and the West Bengal officials, but the issue still remains unresolved. Minister of Rural Development of the West Bengal had sought meeting with the Union Minister Chouhan, but it is yet to take place. West Bengal’s labour budget has not been approved by the Union Government.
Suspension of MGNREGA scheme has been at the centre of politics in the state. Both the BJP and the TMC has been alleging each other of playing politics at the cost of rural workers. TMC says that the Centre has been depriving the workers of the state of their rightful dues.
In the meantime, CM Mamata Banerjee has been campaigning for her KarmashreePrakalpa, a scheme of the state that is aimed to provide at least 50 days of wage employment to each job card holder household, especially in absence of Central MGNREGA scheme for which Centre is still not ready to release funds. Mamata Banerjee has said that the Centre owes Rs3000 crore to the state under the MGNREGA scheme.
The things stand as of now – Centre is hiding behind section 27 of MGNREGA 2005 and willing to keep blocking the release of funds under the scheme, and hence not willing to implement the Calcutta High Court order to restart the scheme from August 1.
As for the BJP is concerned, its West Bengal unit leaders have publicly opposed the resumption of MGNREGA scheme in the state. They do not want release of central fund under this scheme before the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha election to be held before May 7, 2026. (IPA Service)
