West Bengal: SC's MGNREGA ruling ‘supreme blow’ to Centre, says TMC

West Bengal's ruling TMC (Trinamool Congress) on Tuesday described the Supreme Court’s refusal to interfere with the Calcutta High Court order on resuming the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005) scheme in West Bengal as a "supreme blow" to the BJP-led Centre and a "major victory for the poor and deprived" of the state.

The Supreme Court on Monday, 27 October, dismissed the Centre’s plea challenging the high court’s 18 June directive to restart implementation of the 100-day rural job scheme from 1 August 2025. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta observed there was "no reason to interfere" with the HC order.

Addressing a press conference in Kolkata's Trinamool Bhavan, state panchayat and rural development minister Pradip Mazumdar said the ruling vindicated the party’s position that the Centre had engaged in "illegal, unethical and politically motivated deprivation" of Bengal’s workers.

“Nearly 2.58 crore job card holders of West Bengal will now be saved from the BJP’s political vengeance. For three years, the BJP government acted against the poor people of our state. This Supreme Court verdict is a big blow to the Centre’s anti-Bengal politics,” Mazumdar said.

He alleged that despite repeated compliance reports and data-sharing, the Centre froze MGNREGA funds after its 2021 electoral defeat in the state. “We believed the government must act within law. Gradually, we realised the deprivation was politically driven and unlawful,” he added.

According to Mazumdar, 14 central teams and 33 national-level monitoring missions inspected 19 districts over several years and found around Rs 6.03 crore “not conventionally used” between 2016–17 and 2021–22, with another Rs 26 lakh termed 'non-standard usage'.

For this combined Rs 6.29 crore, the Centre froze man-days and funds for three years. Had they not done so, the poor would have received Rs 50.44 crore more,” he said, accusing the BJP of double standards.

“In Uttar Pradesh, where social audits flagged Rs 49 crore misappropriation, and in Maharashtra (Rs 15.20 crore) and Bihar (Rs 17.76 crore), funds were not stopped. In Gujarat, Rs 71 crore was misused and even the rural development minister’s son was jailed, yet no central team went there. But in Bengal, deprivation was the only aim,” he alleged.

Mazumdar also criticised the Centre over alleged irregularities in Aadhaar-linked job card deletions. “In West Bengal, Aadhaar seeding is 99.8 per cent. We deleted only 33 lakh cards since inception, while Uttar Pradesh deleted 1.38 crore. Yet, it is West Bengal that gets accused of irregularities,” he said.

The minister said the state government had paid wages from its own coffers to shield workers from hardship. “We are not begging anyone. We only want justice. And if justice is delayed again, the people will respond in 2026,” he said.

TMC MP Pratima Mondal said the verdict 'exposes the BJP’s anti-poor mindset'.

“Having been repeatedly rejected in West Bengal, the BJP sought revenge by stopping wages of the poorest. This verdict restores dignity to the workers,” she said.

State minister Birbaha Hansda added, “They can stop trains and buses, but they cannot stop the people’s movement. The BJP government only serves the rich. The Supreme Court verdict reaffirms that truth ultimately triumphs.”

The Calcutta High Court had earlier permitted the Centre to continue its probe into alleged irregularities while ordering the scheme’s prospective reinstatement, allowing special safeguards to ensure transparency and compliance in implementation.