 "MGNREGA, MGNREGA wages, labour market, MGNREGA job scheme")
The Centre is looking at various options following the Kolkata High Court’s (HC) order directing it to re-start the stalled Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in West Bengal from August 1, according to senior officials.
They said the order is being studied in detail to understand all the nuances after which a formal stand could be taken.
The Kolkata HC, in an order issued on Wednesday, directed the Centre to resume the MGNREGA scheme in the state that has been stalled since three years, but with some riders.
The Court, while asking the Centre to restart the scheme, also allowed it to impose any condition or restriction that it deems necessary so that corruption that occurred previously is not repeated.
The HC’s order was passed following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that claimed the poor were being denied their legitimate entitlement under the Act, which guarantees 100 days of employment per year to rural households.
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A division Bench comprising Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee Das issued the order.
The Bench noted that neither the Centre nor the State had taken any action against those involved in the alleged corruption, which had delayed the scheme’s implementation in West Bengal.
Both the ruling Trinamool Congress and Opposition BJP claimed victory, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying that the Centre wants to restart all the social welfare programmes stalled in the state since the last three years.
BJP also welcomed the order saying that the control of the scheme will now rest with the Centre, and there won’t be any retrospective payments and genuine beneficiaries will be included in MGNREGS not ghost workers. It added that the order also meant that all recovered money from the mishandling of funds will go back to the consolidated fund of India.
The state, according to some reports, claims that the Centre owes it ₹7,500 crore out of which labour wages alone amount to ₹2,744 crore.
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The Left-affiliated All India Agricultural Workers Union said that the verdict is the result of the continued struggles of the agricultural workers of West Bengal and unity of the workers, peasants, and agricultural workers.
The union government had been withholding MGNREGS funds for West Bengal by imposing Section 27 of the Act that allows it to stop funds for violation of rules in implementation of the scheme by the State.
The section was first invoked in December 2021 alleging large-scale corruption and violation of guidelines.
In a parliament reply made in July 2022, the ministry of rural development had acknowledged that on account of non-compliance of its directives, as per provision of Section 27 of MGNREGA, the release of funds to the State of West Bengal has been stopped. At that time, the pending liabilities for MGNREGS wages was estimated at ₹2,605 crore.
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