‘Centre fails to explain freeze on Bengal’s Rs 45K cr MGNREGA dues before PAC’

Kolkata: The Centre has failed to provide any satisfactory answer when the members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) demanded answers on why Bengal’s MGNREGA dues of nearly Rs 45,000 crore remain frozen, claimed Trinamool Congress (TMC).

In a post on X, TMC stated on Friday that the PAC has exposed the Narendra Modi government’s “biggest fraud”, not just in Bengal but on the very idea of federalism. “When PAC members demanded answers on why Bengal’s MGNREGA dues of nearly Rs 45,000 crore remain frozen, the Centre had nothing but silence and excuses. This, while Gujarat, where a Rs 71-crore scam directly involving a BJP Minister’s son has been unearthed, still enjoys uninterrupted funding,” TMC claimed. The ruling party in Bengal dubbed it “political vendetta” by the BJP-led government at the Centre. It also recalled how the Centre defied the Calcutta High Court order that asked the Centre to resume the scheme in Bengal.

“This financial blockade is an act of vendetta against a State that had the courage to reject @BJP4India’s poison in 2021. Defying the Calcutta High Court’s order, challenging it in the Supreme Court, and stonewalling PAC questions, this regime has shredded every democratic institution to preserve its BANGLA-BIRODHI bias,” TMC wrote on X.

The Centre recently approached the Supreme Court, challenging a Calcutta High Court order that directed resumption of the 100-day work scheme in Bengal and clearance of dues from August 1. On June 18, after a three-year halt, the High Court ordered the prospective implementation of MGNREGA in the state from August 1, 2025.