Trinamul MP Derek O’Brien has published a purported reply in the Rajya Sabha to a question on the number of households which were given 100 days of employment under the MGNREGA to claim that the Centre had allotted no funds under the job scheme for Bengal in 2023-24.

“Finally! Modi Govt admits inside Parliament that BENGAL’S BEEN GIVEN ZERO for MNREGA funds,” O’Brien, the Rajya Sabha member of the Trinamul Congress, wrote on his X handle on Sunday.

The document — which shows to be an “annexure referred in reply to part (a) of Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 622 dated 26.07.2024” — mentioned that the number of households given 100 days’ employment in 2023-24 was zero in Bengal.

The post of O’Brien came at a time when the TMC’s national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, was demanding a whitepaper on MGNREGA funds allocation to Bengal after the Union budget did not mention that the state was not given a single penny under the 100-days’ job scheme in the past few years.

Sources in the state panchayat department said the Centre had stopped the release of funds under the MGNREGA since January, 2021, alleging irregularities in the implementation of the project in Bengal.

“The website of MGNREGA, where state-wise data are updated every day, clearly suggests that Bengal did not get any funds since 2022-23 as no labour budget was approved for the state in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years under the scheme,” said a senior state government official.

According to the sub-section 6 of section 14 of the MGNREGA Act, 2015, all district coordinators of MGNREGA prepare a labour budget in December every year for the next financial year containing the details of the anticipated demand for unskilled manual work in the respective district. Based on the anticipated demand, each state is allotted funds to meet the demand
for jobs.

So, if the labour budget of any state is not approved, it means no MGNREGA job card-holder would get work in the state. This has happened in the case of Bengal. It did not get any funds under the 100-day job scheme in 2022-23 and 2023-24. No labour budget was approved for Bengal in the ongoing 2024-25 financial year too, said an official.

“So, if the Centre does not approve the labour budget for the state, Bengal would not get funds under the scheme this year too,” added the official.

Sources in the panchayat department said that the Centre had repeatedly sent teams to enquire about the alleged irregularities under the scheme and sent a series of recommendations so that no irregularities take place further.

“The Centre had also suggested several penal measures against those involved in the irregularities. We have followed all instructions sent by the centre. But surprisingly, the Centre did not release funds under the scheme in this year’s budget too,” said a source.

TMC insiders said the demand to release whitepaper was the first step to launch a massive campaign against the Centre.

“We will launch a movement against the Centre saying the state was deprived… The strategy has worked in our favour in the recent Lok Sabha polls where the BJP went down to 12 seats from 18. Now, we will corner the BJP saying the centre was depriving the people of Bengal,” said a ruling party leader.