Kolkata, March 11 – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday alleged that the West Bengal government’s failure to submit the labour budget proposal was delaying the release of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the state.
In a statement posted on social media, BJP Information Technology Cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, claimed that the issue was reflected in a reply given in Parliament by Union Minister of State for Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan. The reply was in response to an unstarred question raised by Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Pratima Mondal from Jaynagar in South 24 Parganas district.
According to Malviya, the response made it clear that the Centre had been waiting for the West Bengal government to submit its labour budget proposal for MGNREGA.
“The Lok Sabha document says it all – the Central government has been waiting for West Bengal's government to submit the Labour Budget proposal for MGNREGA, but it hasn't been done despite reminders!” Malviya said in his statement.
He further argued that the parliamentary reply clarified who was responsible for the delay in payments to workers under the scheme in the state.
“It's TMC's own state government that is sitting on the files!” he alleged.
Payments under the MGNREGA scheme in West Bengal have remained suspended for nearly three years, triggering a prolonged political confrontation between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP.
The Union government has maintained that funds were withheld due to alleged large-scale irregularities in the implementation of the scheme.
In June last year, the Calcutta High Court directed the Union government to release pending MGNREGA funds for West Bengal while hearing a petition filed by the Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity. The court observed that while the Centre could impose conditions on the release of funds, it could not indefinitely stop payments.
The Centre later challenged the order in the Supreme Court. Last month, a bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta upheld the High Court’s order and declined to interfere in the matter.