Calcutta High Court Directs Centre to Resume MGNREGA Scheme in West Bengal from August 2025.
Goverment Scheme
On 18 June 2025, the Calcutta High Court directed the Central Government to restart the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in West Bengal from 1 August 2025, ending a near three-year suspension due to alleged irregularities.
- A division bench led by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee ruled that suspending MGNREGA indefinitely violates its legislative purpose; the court allowed the Centre to set safeguards against fraud but mandated the scheme’s reinstatement statewide from August 1.
- MGNREGA funding was frozen in March 2022, following alleged large-scale financial irregularities in several districts—including Hooghly, East Bardhaman, Malda, and Darjeeling—leading to non-payment of wages and loss of rural livelihoods.
- The HC permitted the Centre to resume disbursal with special conditions—such as district-level exclusions pending investigations, transparent direct bank transfers, and regular audits—while stipulating that past erring accounts be probed but current workers should not suffer.
Main Point :- (i) While the scheme is fully funded by the Centre, the HC stressed that withholding allocations based on pending allegations—when no funds were released since 2022—was disproportionate. The Centre must file affidavits explaining its decision and the status of fund recovery before the next hearing post-15 August.
(ii) West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee welcomed the ruling but highlighted that over â‚ą2,700 crore had already been paid by the state to nearly 30 lakh MGNREGA workers, creating 1.5 crore man-days through alternative schemes. She urged faster reinstatement and criticized the Centre for withholding rural development funds.
(iii) The scheme provides 100 days of guaranteed work annually to rural households, crucial for wage security, poverty alleviation, and rural infrastructure. Its resumption is expected to reinvigorate the rural economy, curb distress migration, and restore financial stability for millions of workers in West Bengal.
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