December 26, 2023, marked two years since the Union government stopped funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to West Bengal.
The last time the Centre had released funds was on December 26, 2021. With the stoppage of funds, the employment guarantee scheme in the State came to a complete halt affecting over two crore job cardholders. The Union government decided to stop payments for MGNREGS in the State by invoking Section 27 of the NREGA Act alleging widespread corruption. The Section points out that the Centre may order the stoppage of funds and institute appropriate remedial measures for its proper implementation within a reasonable period of time.
Two years is a long time for Centre to withhold funds to a job guarantee scheme and activists from NREGA Sangharsh Morcha have raised questions on what a “reasonable period of time” should be.
Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity (PBKMS) has approached the Calcutta High Court over denial of wages to lakhs of MGNREGS workers but despite several hearings, the matter is pending before the Court. Activists and workers’ unions of West Bengal admit that there might be some corruption in the implementation of the scheme but stopping funds for the entire State may not be a pragmatic solution when crores are dependent on 100 days’ work.
Indeed, denial of funds to Centrally sponsored programmes was the dominating political theme in West Bengal in 2023. Even as the freezing of funds played out in the political arena, it was the poor in the State who felt its impact, as a marked rise in migration to other States showed.
About 103 passengers, mostly migrant workers from the State headed for work in the southern States, were among those killed in the horrific Odisha train accident on June 2, 2023. Similarly, almost all the 23 victims killed when an under-construction railway bridge collapsed in Mizoram’s Aizawl district, were from the State. These accidents are a reminder of the grave situation in the State where unemployment and migration have hit life in rural regions hard.
The West Bengal government has decided to constitute its own scheme, Khela Hobe, on the lines of MGNREGS but has not come out with the details of the scheme. According to the West Bengal government, funds pending with the Centre amount to ₹6,911 crore including ₹3,732 crore against wage liability and ₹3,179 crore against non-wage liabilities.
In October, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee rallied about 3,000 MGNREGS workers and held protests in Delhi. This was the first time that the State’s ruling party decided to take the protests to Delhi over denial of funds to key Central schemes.
After his return from Delhi in October, Mr. Banerjee held protests in front of the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata for five days before the State’s Governor intervened and assured to take up the issue with the Centre.
In the last month of the year, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee led a delegation of party MPs to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi over denial of funds to key schemes like MGNREGS.
Ms. Banerjee claimed that she had written to the PM several times over the issue. The Chief Minister in a representation to the Prime Minister claimed that funds of the tune of ₹1.16 lakh crore are due to the State from the Government of India “on account of various Centrally Sponsored Schemes and pending claims for natural disasters over past years. The outstanding dues include ‘core of the core’ social schemes like MGNREGS, PMAY [Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana], PMGSY [Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana], NHM [National Health Mission] etc”.
While many in the political circles perceive that the denial of funds to the West Bengal government is a political strategy of the BJP government at the Centre, meant to choke the Trinamool leadership, the distress it has caused at the ground level may cost the BJP dearly in West Bengal. BJP leaders like Suvendu Adhikari are facing protests from locals over the denial of wages.
The issue will also be raised by the Trinamool ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2024. The BJP leadership is ready to counter such allegations with claims of rampant corruption not only in MGNREGS but also other schemes. The issue of Central funds will play out in 2024 when the State goes to polls to elect 42 MPs to the Indian Parliament.
