West Bengal, Centre spar over unpaid MGNREGS and housing scheme funds

The imbroglio over pending MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) and other dues to West Bengal flared up again on Monday with a delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs, MLAs and ministers staging a protest at Rajghat in the national capital, alleging that the Centre had deliberately stopped the release of funds.

Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh hit back, alleging that West Bengal had issued 2.5 million fake MGNREGS job cards due to which crores of rupees of government funds were siphoned off. Singh said the government of India was continuously exposing the rigging in the MGNREGS and the rural housing scheme in West Bengal, but the state government failed to take appropriate action. Singh was addressing a press conference on the issue in Bihar.

 

The issue echoed in the West Bengal Assembly as well, with the opposition BJP staging a protest on the staircase of the Legislative Assembly to counter the ruling TMC’s protest in New Delhi.

According to a detailed reply in Parliament a few months back, funds under the MGNREGS to West Bengal have been stopped since March 9, 2022 in accordance with the provisions under Section 27 of the MGNREG Act, 2005, due to non-compliance with directives of the central government. The section was first invoked in December 2021, alleging large-scale corruption and violation of guidelines.

Till August 1, 2023, total unpaid dues of Rs 5,583 crore was pending towards the state under the MGNREGS, of which Rs 2,770 crore was on account of pending wages, while the rest was for pending material payment.

Giriraj Singh also said the Centre had a monitoring team in West Bengal, but no timely action was taken on their report by the state government. He said the state was asked by the ministry on several occasions to submit a comprehensive action taken report, but no action was taken by the state government.

Finally, the state was informed that non-submission of an ATR in time could also lead to the withholding of funds under MGNREGA. After this, an ATR, protecting the culprits, was presented by the state government, he alleged. When questions were asked, the state government was also unable to answer the issues of corruption, he added.

“The West Bengal government is not at all cooperating with the central government in the investigation of corruption,” Singh said.

On the commitment of the Centre towards rural development of West Bengal, Singh said West Bengal got only Rs 58,000 crore during the UPA government, while the same in the nine years of the Narendra Modi government has risen to more than Rs 2,00,000 crore.

He said before stopping, more than Rs 54,000 crore was given to West Bengal in the last nine years, whereas during the UPA’s term, this figure was only Rs 14,900 crore.

Singh said that under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), while only Rs 5,400 crore was spent by the state during the UPA government, more than double Rs 11,000 crore had been spent in the Modi government.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, only Rs 4,400 crore was spent during the UPA government, whereas the Modi government gave Rs 30,000 crore to Bengal.

The Union minister said today, under NRLM, the bank linkage of Didis of West Bengal is worth about Rs 74,000 crore, whereas during the time of UPA it was only Rs 600 crore.

He added that while 111 crore man-days of work were created under MGNREGA between 2006-2014; 240 crore man-days were created after 2014.

 

While only 1.5 million houses were built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana during the UPA, the Modi government gave houses to about 4.5 million poor people in West Bengal.

Biswajit Dev, a spokesperson for TMC and member of the party's state committee, accused the Centre of destroying the rural employment scheme MGNREGS and said it's an insult to Mahatma Gandhi, after whom the scheme has been named. “Is this democracy? The Centre is using schemes for political benefits," he alleged.

A fact-finding team of civil society activists sent to West Bengal a few months back had found that the stoppage of funds was having a profound impact on the livelihoods of the poor.

The fact-finding report said that a majority of the workers we met complained that despite their willingness to work, no work had been provided in FY 2022-23 under MGNREGA. Even those who received work had gotten only 6-12 days of work.

It said many MGNREGS workers, especially single women, reported that non-payment of wages had impacted food security. They often have to skip meals due to lack of resources.

“This autocratic decision amounts to the criminalisation and punishment of the entire 1.5 crore MGNREGS workers in the state for no fault of theirs. Practically no new work has been done in 2022-23, forcing workers to migrate and to cut down on essential expenses like food, medical expenses and education. The same fate awaits them in FY 2023-24,” the report said.