Central schemes likely to get fresh push after BJP's West Bengal win

The prime example of this is MGNREGA, which has now been replaced by the new Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (GRAMIN) or VB-G RaM G

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) stupendous win in West Bengal could open the door for smooth fund flow for many Central government schemes and projects, several of which have been struck over the years due to a rift between the Narendra Modi government and one led by Mamata Banerjee in the state, experts and commentators said.

 

The prime example of this is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which has now been replaced by the new Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (GRAMIN) or VB-G RaM G.

 

The Union government, through an order issued on December 6, 2025, had okayed resumption of the scheme in West Bengal as per a directive of the High Court but subject to mandatory compliance with special conditions.

 

 

These conditions, as per central sources, included prohibition of any work valued at more than ₹20 lakh, compulsory 100 per cent electronic KYC of all workers, compulsory pre-estimation field visits for all works before they are taken up, and review of job cards within a period of one month from the resumption of the scheme in the state. These were put in place to ensure effective and lawful implementation of the scheme in the state.

 

Thereafter, it urged the state government to submit a labour budget proposal for 2025–26 for consideration by the empowered Committee of MGNREGS within 30 days of receiving the resumption order.

 

However, as per a Parliament reply answered on February 2, 2026, the state government had not sent the labour budget till then.

 

The Central government said that, as per its website, as on March 8, 2022, the total pending liability pertaining to West Bengal stood at ₹3,082.52 crore, admissibility of which was subject to verification by the Central government.

 

The Centre invoked provisions under Section 27 of the now-replaced MGNREGS Act, which allowed it to stop funds for rule violations in the scheme's implementation. It withheld funds for West Bengal starting in March 2022, alleging large-scale corruption and mismanagement in the state's implementation of the scheme.

 

These included the presence of a large number of bogus beneficiaries.

 

If MGNREGS, or its new avatar VB-G RaM G, could get a fresh lease of life in West Bengal, experts said implementation of several other Central schemes too might get smoother with a supportive government in place.

 

One such scheme is Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin, or the rural housing scheme.

 

Though the scheme had a high completion rate of almost 75 per cent in West Bengal and, as against the Central target of 4.56 million dwellings, as per the Centre there have been multiple complaints of selection of ineligible families, exclusion of eligible beneficiaries, and changes to the scheme’s name in violation of rules, which were being probed by Central agencies from time to time.

 

Then there is the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). As on December 15, 2025, out of the 1.75 crore rural households, around 99.09 lakh, or around 56.46 per cent, had been provided tap water connections in West Bengal.

 

As per a Parliament reply tabled on December 18, 2025, between 2019–20 and 2023–24, the Central government allocated around ₹24,645 crore to West Bengal for JJM, but the state could draw only around ₹13,027.84 crore (around 53 per cent) due to delay in submission of proposals along with requisite documents, as per Ministry of Finance and JJM guidelines.

 

The JJM has since been extended till December 2028.

 

Not only that, when it comes to Ayushman Bharat (the state had its own version of the insurance scheme), as per the Central government, an amount of ₹785 crore every year was provisioned to West Bengal for implementation of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) since the launch of the scheme in September 2018.

 

However, the scheme was implemented in West Bengal only from September 23, 2018, to January 10, 2019, during which an amount of ₹31.28 crore was released to the state as Central share.

 

“Subsequently, the State Government decided to withdraw from the implementation of the scheme with effect from January 10, 2019,” the reply said. Although the PM-KISAN scheme officially launched in February 2019, West Bengal joined only in FY22. For the 21st instalment released for August 2025 to November 2025, around 4.5 million eligible farmers in the state received almost ₹890 crore as PM-KISAN.

 

Not much is known of the fate of the first seven instalments starting from December 2018 for the state’s farmers.

 

When it comes to Central projects, the Union government has been alleging that several big-ticket railway projects have been struck in the state due to reluctance on the part of West Bengal to undertake appropriate land acquisition for them.

 

As per a Parliament reply tabled on December 17, 2025, total land required for railway projects in the state is around 4,564 hectares, of which around 1,250 hectares (around 27 per cent had been acquired till then), while the balance of around 3,314 hectares was pending.

 

“Government of India is geared up to execute projects; however, success depends upon the support of the West Bengal government,” the then Parliament reply had said.  “When the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission was launched, the Central government was willing to allocate Rs 100 crore for each cluster (a grouping of 10 or more villages) for developmental purposes, but the state government never came forward to identify those clusters,” a senior official explained. 

The disruption

 

• MGNREGS pending dues were ₹3,082.56 cr as of March 8, 2022
• Jal Jeevan Mission fund spent between 2019-20 and 2023-24: 53% of allocation
• Ayushman Bharat scheme stopped since January 10, 2019
• Swamitva scheme not implemented till December 2025 in Bengal as it did not sign MoU with Centre