Bengal NREGA: Is Centre Reluctant to Comply With SC Verdict?

Is the Central government refusing to comply with the Supreme Court’s order on MGNREGA in West Bengal? This question is echoing across the state. The fact is that, on October 27, the Supreme Court directed the Central government to release funds for the stalled Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) work in West Bengal. It ordered that the funds for this project cannot be withheld indefinitely.

A month has passed since the Supreme Court’s directions, yet the Centre has not released any money for MGNREGA work in Bengal. The state government, too, has remained silent.

Meanwhile, the ruling parties at the Centre and the state -- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are busy in a blame game over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal, which is scheduled to have Assembly elections next year.

Caught in this quagmire, the poor, working people of Bengal are asking if MGNREGA work is getting overshadowed by the chaos surrounding SIR? Will the Centre ignore the Supreme Court ruling? Why is the state government silent as well? Within a few days, paddy harvest will end, what will happen after that? Where will the poor find work?

Amid this chaos, in many parts of the state, the poor and marginalised farm workers have taken to the streets, raising their voices in demand for MGNREGA work. For the past four years, this constitutionally guaranteed 100-days of work has come to a halt in Bengal for lack of Central funds. How much longer will this continue? they ask

Recall that the Central government had approached the Supreme Court seeking to stop the constitutionally recognised MGNREGA work for over 2.5 crore poor and marginalised daily wage labourers in Bengal citing alleged irregularities. The Centre had moved the top court challenging the Calcutta High Court’s direction on resuming work. It sought the SC’s permission to continue its earlier decision to withhold the project in the state.

On October 27, the Supreme Court bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sanjiv Mehta dismissed the Central government’s plea to withhold the release of MGNREGA funds for West Bengal. The court clearly stated that the Centre must release funds to Bengal, which cannot be indefinitely withheld, while upholding the ruling of the Calcutta High Court.

It is worth noting that on June 18, the Calcutta High Court had clearly directed the Centre that MGNREGA could not under any circumstances be kept in cold storage indefinitely. It had directly instructed the Centre that while it could continue its investigation into the alleged irregularities in the MGNREGA project work in Bengal, it must not stop the work.

People are demanding for 100 days work at Manbazar Purulia.

The Calcutta HC had ordered the resumption of the scheme in the state from August 1, 2025. Yet, till date, the Central government has reportedly not complied with the ruling.

Significantly, the state government did not take any initiative to press the Centre to implement the Calcutta High Court’s order. As a result, crores of poor and marginalised people of are spending their days jobless, with the financial hardship reaching a devastating level.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on October 27, has not reached the poor and jobless working-class people in Bengal. Immediately after hearing the verdict, we started visiting various rural areas to inform people about the Supreme Court judgment. The verdict brough a glimmer of hope for people, who had long been suffering from severe lack of work and rising frustration. But a month has passed and no steps have been taken regarding the matter. The anger is growing among the poor and workless marginalised people”, Sagar Badyakar, assistant secretary, All India Agriculture Workers Union of West Bengal, told this reporter.

He added, “We cannot trust the Central government, as our past experience is not good” because it did not implement the Calcutta High Court’s ruling five months ago.

Furthermore, the state government is also not taking any positive steps regarding this project, he added. Both the Central and state governments and the two ruling parties -- BJP and TMC-- are merely engaging in blame games. Amid all this, the common people are suffering from the agony of joblessness, Badyakar said, adding that in this situation, their movement for MGNREGA work will continue until the scheme is resumed transparently.

On November 6, thousands of people had gathered at Taldangra Block in Bankura to demand this work. Memoranda have been submitted in several districts across the state, including Purulia, Purbo Bardhaman, Hooghly, Birbhum, Purbo and Pashchim Medinipur, Murshidabad, Maldaha, Howrah.

Migrant labourer Sanoyar Mandal and his wife Saleha Khatun at Pathordoba village  under Simlapal block, Bankura are looking for100 days of work.

The Context of Supreme Court’s Oct 27Ruling  

After receiving numerous complaints, the Union government’s survey team first visited Bengal. During its field investigation, the team found corruption in works such as orchard creation, social forestry, and reservoir construction and renovation.  Where there was not a single tree, lakhs of rupees had been shown as spent under the social forestry scheme, the team found. Similarly, without a water body, funds from MGNREGA project had been shown as spent for the pond and reservoir construction. The Centrla team also alleged that money had been withdrawn in the name of establishing fruit orchards that did not exist at all.

Allegations of corruption in MGNREGA projects have been raised time and again against several gram panchayat elected officials, ruling party leaders and even some government officials of panchayat, block and district level. In 2021, while conducting a survey in Jangal Mahal Bankura, the survey team from the Union Rural Development Ministry had told this to journalists.

“Despite raising multiple cases of corruption, the Central team did not formally report or recommend any legal action against the specific accused individuals,” said an official of the Bankura panchayat and rural development department, on the condition of anonymity.

After the survey, the Central government stopped releasing funds for MGNREGA in West Bengal in March 2022, citing allegations of widespread corruption and financial irregularities by invoking Section 27 of the Act.  

According to Section 27, the Central government may give such directions as it may consider necessary to the state government for the effective implementation of the provision of the Act. And in required shall order stoppage of the funds to the scheme if no appropriate remedial measures are instituted within a reasonable period.  

Farm labourers of Bankura 1 number block marched in a rally  and submitted a deputation to the block office, demanding NREGA work.

“Because of this decision by the Central government, the jobs of 1,36, 58,944 job card holders and 2,56,32,151 members of their families in Bengal have suddenly become uncertain. Yet, it was the United Progressive Alliance (UPA-1) government under Prime-Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in 2005 that,-following the demand from Left parties, this 100-day work MGNREGA scheme was launched across the country. Now depriving Bengal of this constitutionally recognised employment scheme is unjust”, said former Member of Parliament of Bishnupur parliament constituency, Susmita Bauri.

“When the scheme was halted, the wages of many workers who had been employed under it remained unpaid. Nearly three years later, last year, the state government paid those pending wages from its own funds. However, not all workers have received full payment, said Ajit Ray, former MLA of Sonamukhi Assembly constituency, told this reporter. He is also a leader of the Khetmajur union of Bankura district committee.

Ray added: “We have been continuously protesting and demand clearance of pending wages for workers and resumption of the MGNREGA work.”

On April 10, the then Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, T.S Sivagnanam, had directed the Union Ministry of Rural Development to submit a report regarding the state’s 100- days’ work scheme. He had asked for the report to be submitted within a week, as a public interest litigation had been filed alleging large-scale corruption in the implementation of the scheme.

In connection with the case, the High Court formed a four- member committee and instructed it to submit its findings. The committee subsequently submitted its report to the court. During the hearing, the counsel for the Central government informed the court that irregularities amounting to Rs 5.37 crore had been detected involved the creation of fake job cards, including those issued in the names of deceased persons, and funds were fraudulently withdrawn through such bogus entries. This led to the Central government suspending the release of funds for MGNREGA in West Bengal.

Madhabi and Sarala Bauri showing their MGNREGA job cards at Maliyara Barjora.

Then, on June 18, 2025, a division bench headed by Chief Justice T. S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) ordered that the scheme must be resumed in West Bengal. The court directed the Central government to restart MGNREGA from August 1, 2025.

The court also permitted the Union government to continue its inquiries into past misuse and even impose special conditions on West Bengal alone, if required. But it clarified that indefinite suspension of the scheme was not permissible under law.

The Centre did not allocate funds for work in the state from August 1, and the state government also did not take any legal action in this regard. In this situation, on October 27, the Supreme Court ordered the Centre to release funds for MGNREGA work in West Bengal.

It is reported that on that day, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sanjiv Mehta, asked the Central government’s lawyers: “The case you have filed to withhold MGNREGA funds in West Bengal-- will you withdraw it, or should the Court dismiss it?” Moments later, the judges delivered their verdict.

In this context, senior lawyer and Member of Parliament Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya stated that it was wrong to withhold wages meant for the work of poor people. He said it was inappropriate for the Central government to approach the Supreme Court in opposition to the Calcutta High Court directive to release the funds.

Bhattacharya, however, reiterated that it was true that MGNREGA funds had been “misappropriated” in West Bengal. He welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict and said that now the state government should start the work immediately, as the people of the state were eager.

But why has work not begun anywhere? Is the Central government not complying with the court’s verdict? In an atmosphere dominated by SIR work, will the cries of the poor simply be suppressed?  

The writer covers the Jangal Mahal region for ‘Ganashakti’ newspaper in West Bengal.

(All photographs by Madhu Sudan Chatterjee)