MGNREGA: Centre seeks ‘action taken report’; Min says ‘ploy to delay resumption’

Kolkata: Ignoring the recent directions of Calcutta High Court to immediately resume the 100-day work in Bengal under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) the Centre has now sought ‘action taken report‘ (ATR) from the Bengal Panchayats and Rural Development (P&RD) department, stating that the last ATR sent by the state was not ‘satisfactory’.

The Bengal government has been given a month’s time for sending the ATR.

According to sources in the state P&RD department, the last ATR in connection with 100-day work was sent to the Panchayati Raj Ministry on 11 July. The Centre, in its letter, has claimed that appropriate measures for transparency and financial discipline have not been reflected in that particular ATR sent by the state P&RD department.

However, in the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee held in Parliament on November 13, where 100 days’ work was the agenda, Sailesh Kumar Singh, the Secretary of the Panchayati Raj Ministry, had said that 100 days’ work will soon start in Bengal as per the directions of the Calcutta High Court. The top official, however, did not mention any date or time frame. Minister in Charge of the State P& RD department, Pradip Majumdar, said that the recent move of seeking ATR is a deliberate ploy to delay the resumption of 100 days’ work in Bengal.

“This is again a new method of depriving Bengal through false claims,” he added.

Assuming that the centre will inform the court about its move of seeking ATR, the state P &RD department is considering of legally vetting its reply before sending it to the centre.

A top official in the state P& RD department said that action has already been taken against some officials for irregularities, and more than 25 ATRs have been submitted to the Centre. Around Rs 6 crore have been recovered and sent to the centre through e-transfer. On November 7, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen observed that MGNREGA work should start in Bengal without delay. “As accepted by all the parties that there exists no impediment for implementing MGNREGA with prospective effect, we deem it proper to implement the MGNREGA scheme forthwith,” the bench said.

In June this year, a division bench comprising the then Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) had ordered the relaunch of MGNREGA in West Bengal. The top court had directed that work be resumed from August 1, 2025. The Centre moved the apex court last month, and the top court dismissed the Centre’s plea challenging the Calcutta High Court order, which directed that MGNREGA, the 100-day job guarantee scheme, be implemented prospectively in West Bengal from August 1, 2025. The Centre had stopped funds to the state in March 2022, citing powers under Section 27 of the MGNREGA Act.