MGNREGS row: Centre says Bengal only state with pending wage liabilities
The Ministry stated that West Bengal is the sole state with uncleared, due, and admissible pending wage liabilities from the previous financial year (2024-25).
The Ministry stated that West Bengal is the sole state with uncleared, due, and admissible pending wage liabilities from the previous financial year (2024-25).
During a discussion on the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman revealed a critical breach: she claimed the West Bengal government had issued 25 lakh fake MGNREGA job cards, resulting in the siphoning off of "crores of government money."
In the last 10 years, from 2014-15 to 2024-25, the central government has released Rs 7,81,302 crore which resulted in the creation of 8.07 crore rural assets under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme.
The Union Government on Friday informed that a total of 187.5 crore person days have been generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in FY 2024-25, providing employment to 4.6 crore rural households
As per government data, this is a 76 per cent increase in the last decade, from 1,660 crore generated between FY 2006-07 to FY 2013-14.
For the financial year 2020-21, a sum of Rs 31,493 crore has already been released which is more than 50 per cent of the budget estimate of the current Financial Year.
The surge in facts and figures between 20 April, when work began for this fiscal and now, reaffirms the shattering impact of the lockdown in the season of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Many of these labourers would be completely dependent on the MNREGA scheme for their livelihood, in the days to come, sources in the department said.
If the MGNREGS is to beat the inflation rate, the budgetary allocation will have to be increased from the Rs 60,000 crore for fiscal 2019-20.
During last assessment year Uttar Pradesh was the top performer.
