The central government has stopped releasing funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to West Bengal after it found large-scale irregularities in executing the flagship programme by the state, two officials aware of the development said on Monday.
After audits detected irregularities in implementing the programme, the Centre stopped releasing funds to West Bengal from March 2022. No money has been released for the state under MGNREGS as the state government has not taken corrective measures, the officials said, requesting anonymity.
Some other states have also been alerted to certain irregularities in implementing the scheme and they have assured the Centre that they will take corrective measures, a senior official said.
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“If they don’t follow the stated guidelines, they will also face action as per provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005,” the official added.
The officials were responding to Saturday’s comments by the West Bengal chief minister, who said she was stopped from speaking at the Niti Ayog meeting when she was trying to raise several issues including suspension of central funds for welfare schemes such as MGNREGA.
{{/usCountry}}The officials were responding to Saturday’s comments by the West Bengal chief minister, who said she was stopped from speaking at the Niti Ayog meeting when she was trying to raise several issues including suspension of central funds for welfare schemes such as MGNREGA.
{{/usCountry}}“ ₹6,913 crore is due under MGNREGA since FY 2021-22. The chief minister ordered in February that the state should pay this amount to the beneficiaries in phases from its own funds. We have started the process,” a senior West Bengal bureaucrat said on condition of anonymity on Monday.
On February 2, the Enforcement Directorate carried out its first raids in West Bengal as part of its probe into alleged irregularities in implementation of the MGNREGA scheme.
“The raids were politically motivated. The ED was activated by BJP after Banerjee announced that she will pay MGNREGA beneficiaries from state funds,” said industry minister Shashi Panja on July 24.
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On February 3, Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to the Prime Minister refuting a CAG report on delay in submission of utilisation certificates for various central schemes. Calling it a “false propaganda,” she said her government submitted all utilisation certificates to the respective Union ministries on time.
The ministries of rural development and finance did not respond to email queries on the matter. The rural development ministry is the administrative ministry for this scheme. The finance ministry releases funds to states after approval from the rural development ministry.
The release of funds to West Bengal was stopped under Section 27 of the Act over non-compliance of directives by the central government, a second official said. Section 27 empowers the Centre to enquire about complaints of irregularities and to send a statement of charges to the state government for a response within a specified period. The Centre has the power to involve investigative agencies such as the CBI if criminal intent is prima facie established. In case the state does not cooperate, the release of MGNREGA funds can be stopped.
MGNREGA is a demand-driven employment scheme that assures livelihood security to households in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment every financial year to each household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
“The funding will be restored once the central government is satisfied that the state has taken appropriate remedial measures,” the second official said. As per the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA Act, 100% wage payment within 15 days of the work done is the central government’s liability.
The Union Budget on July 23 allocated ₹86,000 crore for implementation of MGNREGA in 2024-25, similar to the revised estimate (RE) for FY24, but substantially higher than the budget estimate (BE) of 2023-24 that was ₹60,000 crore.
So far, the Centre has released ₹29,139 crore in the current financial year (as of July 22) to states. The central government makes wage payments directly into the bank or post office accounts of the beneficiaries under the direct benefit transfer (DBT) protocol through a National Electronic Fund Management System (Ne-FMS), the second official said.