{"id":71477,"date":"2025-11-01T11:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T05:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=71477"},"modified":"2025-11-01T11:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T05:44:07","slug":"mgnregs-in-west-bengal-why-it-was-halted-and-how-it-could-restart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mgnregs-in-west-bengal-why-it-was-halted-and-how-it-could-restart\/","title":{"rendered":"MGNREGS in West Bengal: Why It Was Halted and How It Could Restart"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>MGNREGS Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Supreme Court<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has allowed the resumption of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in West Bengal after a suspension of three and a half years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the <\/span><b>MGNREGA Act, 2005<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, rural adults willing to do unskilled manual work are legally entitled to <\/span><b>100 days of wage employment annually<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with funding shared in a <\/span><b>90:10 ratio<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> between the <\/span><b>Centre and the State<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the <\/span><b>Centre covering all wages<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before the <\/span><b>Centre suspended the scheme in 2022<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, West Bengal ranked among the <\/span><b>top-performing states<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with <\/span><b>51\u201380 lakh families<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> benefiting from it each year between <\/span><b>2014-15 and 2021-22<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Supreme Court dismissed the Centre\u2019s plea<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> challenging the <\/span><b>Calcutta High Court\u2019s order<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that directed the <\/span><b>scheme to resume from August 1, 2025<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, clearing the way for its implementation to restart.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Why MGNREGS Was Stopped in West Bengal<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Centre suspended MGNREGS funds to West Bengal from March 2022, citing \u201cnon-compliance with central directives\u201d under <\/span><b>Section 27 of the MGNREGA Act, 2005<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the Ministry of Rural Development, inspections <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">revealed financial irregularities, execution of non-permissible works, splitting of projects, and a lack of transparency and accountability in implementation<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite repeated warnings, no significant improvement was observed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state government persistently demanded resumption of the scheme. When the Centre refused, the state moved the Calcutta High Court, which ordered MGNREGS to resume from August 1, 2025.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Centre appealed to the Supreme Court, but recently, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta dismissed the plea, clearing the way for the scheme\u2019s restart in the state.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>MGNREGS Likely to Resume Soon in West Bengal After SC Order<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the Supreme Court dismissing the Centre\u2019s plea, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) now has no option but to restart MGNREGS in West Bengal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ruling is a major setback for the ministry, which had earlier resisted resuming the scheme.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In December 2024, MoRD had stated that West Bengal must meet compliance requirements before funds for MGNREGS and PMAY-G could be released.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Centre had halted funding for both schemes in 2022, citing corruption in implementation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, after the SC\u2019s decision, the ministry is expected to begin procedural steps to restore funds and resume MGNREGS operations in the state.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Labour Budget Clearance Key to Restarting MGNREGS in West Bengal<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first step toward restarting MGNREGS in West Bengal is the <\/span><b>approval of the state\u2019s labour budget <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). The state has already approached the ministry for this clearance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The labour budget <\/span><b>outlines the expected demand for unskilled work and lists projects to be undertaken<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a financial year. It is <\/span><b>approved by an Empowered Committee<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> headed by the Union Rural Development Secretary.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once approved, states can generate fund requests through NREGASoft, the scheme\u2019s Management Information System (MIS).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The MoRD then releases funds based on the agreed labour budget.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Normally, these approvals are completed by January each year, but West Bengal\u2019s labour budget has not been cleared since 2021-22, when funding was suspended.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Approval of this budget is therefore essential for resuming MGNREGS operations in the state.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>West Bengal\u2019s Pending Dues Under Rural Development Schemes<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to West Bengal government sources, about \u20b918,000 crore in dues are pending from the Centre under three major rural development schemes:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MGNREGS,\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), and\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the Central government reports a lower figure.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a Rajya Sabha reply in December 2023, then Rural Development Minister stated that \u20b913,965 crore was pending as the Central share for MGNREGS and PMAY-G combined.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The gap between the two estimates highlights the ongoing disagreement between the Centre and the state over the exact amount owed to West Bengal under these key welfare programmes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/mgnregs-scheme-west-bengal-resume-funds-10331786\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court cleared MGNREGS resumption in West Bengal after three years. Learn why it was paused, what\u2019s pending, and what steps are needed to restart it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":71492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,2829,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-71477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-mains-articles","9":"tag-mgnregs","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}