MGNREGA – the key objective

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), launched on February 2, 2006; was designed to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment annually to eligible rural households in all the states including West Bengal. The CPI(M) claims that it was their brainchild to improve the socio-economic conditions rural families. They had been a key stakeholder of the UPA Government.

Its core objective was to strengthen the livelihood security of the rural poor while simultaneously developing local infrastructure. Unlike conventional social welfare schemes involving non-productive cash transfers, MGNREGA aimed to combine employment with asset creation.

MGNREGA: West Bengal

In West Bengal, as in other states, the scheme began smoothly, until December 2021; when the Centre suspended payments, triggering widespread complications. The reports suggest the MGNREGA had been muddled with the so-called cut-money culture and false claims.

Despite much water flowing down the Ganges, the suspension of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act persists. Let’s look into the sequence of events.

• Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity (PBKMS) under the active participation of Trade union leader Anuradha Talwar and some others filed a suit.
• Activist groups like the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha have organized campaigns to create paramount pressure on the authorities to release pending wages and cease the suspension. 
• Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC deputy commander, had held protest at Rajghat in October 2023, along with 49 busloads of people from West Bengal. The event received ample pan-India media attention, but led to no tangible action.
• Abhishek Banerjee started the sit-in protest outside Raj Bhavan. It’s shocking that a protest could be held in a prohibited area right under the nose of the Kolkata Police Headquarters. Such astonishing sit-in protest resonates the widespread criticism of alleged relationship between the ruling party and administration.
• Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paid to 21 lakh beneficiaries in 2024.
• Mamata Banerjee also staged her two-day dharna in Kolkata in February 2024. Multitalented Mamata, started walking in the cool morning and started talking to basketball players to understand the sport. This event also received extensive media coverage, but nothing substantial happened.

MGNREGA: Suspension of Delhi

Ultimately all had gone in vain.  Notably, the Centre suspended the funds due to widespread irregularities. The monitoring team from the center inspected 63 worksites, out of which they noticed inconsistencies in 31 sites. The imbroglio started on grounds that the state had allegedly issued nearly 2.5 million fake job cards; that enabled siphoning of crores of rupees. The exchange of stiffly worded letters had begun at the bureaucratic levels. Brushing asides the political slugfest, lets turn to the reality. The critics say that the top rankers and local TMC leaders had been involved in such mishaps. That’s why the Government didn’t want to take any action except a couple of lower-level employees.

Giriraj Singh mentioned that the State Government didn’t submit the comprehensive Action Taken Report despite several follow-ups. In reality, no action was taken at all. The center had even identified the culprits and asked to take action. When the center has cautioned the state that non-compliance with the submission of ATR may lead to cease the funds, they sent a report safeguarding the culprits. Even the state government was unable to answer the allegations of corruption.

Court Cases regarding MGNREGA

It is worth mentioning that the West Bengal has never gone to the Supreme court as a petitioner over the dispute. Kerala and Tamil Nadu managed to assert their rights of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for their states through court intervention. Critics demand that the State Government never approached the Apex court they knew that the rot is from within. They had been also panicky as they felt such money laundering may attract pan-India media attention.

Ultimately, it means a deprivation of the poor and the records show that the number of migrant workers has increased by leaps and bounds in this tenure.

On June 18, 2025, the Calcutta High Court ordered the Centre to resume the scheme in West Bengal from August 1, 2025. The court also allowed the Centre could continue its investigation into alleged misuse of funds. Moreover, the court also stated that the center can impose any terms and conditions on MGNREGA for West Bengal, which they might not have imposed anywhere else.

Finally, the Supreme Court’s judgment on October 27, 2025 effectively cleared the path for the scheme to be restarted in West Bengal, as per the High Court’s directive, after a block of nearly three and a half years.

Conclusion

It’s indeed a welcome step that poor rural households will finally receive the benefits they rightfully deserve. However, this cannot overshadow the massive financial irregularities and large-scale misappropriations that have plagued the system. Meanwhile, the political wrangling over the credit for the resumption of MGNREGA has begun in predictable fashion. Despite Trinamool vehemently staking its claim, the credit doesn’t belong to them at all.  The chest-thumping may illude the commoners, but the fact of life remains, Trinamool or the Government had never gone to the court as a petitioner, but just as a mere responder.

Sadly, many seem to have forgotten that it was PBKMS that initiated the legal battle, represented by advocate Bikash Bhattacharya, Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the CPI(M).