Article Title: Calcutta High Court asks Centre to resume implementation of MGNREGA in West Bengal
19-06-2025
Polity & Governance Current Affairs Analysis
Context
• The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Union government to resume implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in West Bengal from August 1.
• The scheme, which provides 100 days of wage employment to rural households, has remained suspended in the State since March 2022.
• A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee noted that the Ministry of Rural Development had invoked Clause 27 of the MGNREGA to withhold funds to the State, a provision permitting fund flow stoppage for a reasonable period of time.
MGNREGA
• MGNREGA is one of the largest work guarantee programmes in the world launched in 2005 by the Ministry of Rural development.
• MGNREGA is a social security scheme guaranteeing 100 days of work to any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage.
• The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) is monitoring the entire implementation of this scheme in association with state governments.
• The wages are revised according to the Consumer Price Index-Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL).
• The act obligates the state to give rural households work on demand.
• The applicant becomes eligible for an unemployment allowance if such employment is not provided within 15 days of registration.
• The employment will be provided within a radius of 5 km. If it is >5 km, an extra wage will be paid.
• Under the act, priority shall be given to women, and at least one-third of the beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested work.
• All work sites should have crèches, drinking water and first aid facilities.
• Social Audit must be done by the Gram Sabha
"UPSC-2026-PRELIMS COMBINED MAINS PROGRAMME" NEW BATCH STARTS WITH ORIENTATION ON JULY 7th,2025 
