No resumption of MGNREGA work in West Bengal regardless of HC order says PBKMS

Despite an order by the Calcutta High Court, to renew MGNREGA in West Bengal from August 1, there was no resumption of 100 days work, Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, a union of agricultural staff, mentioned on Friday (August 1, 2025).

Hearing a petition of PBKMS a division bench of the Calcutta High Court headed by T.S. Sivagnanam on June 18 directed the resumption of the scheme from August 1

“Yet, even after this landmark victory for rural staff, each the Central and State governments have chosen to openly defy the Court’s order. Instead of getting ready for the resumption of labor, block places of work in a number of districts are refusing to even settle for job purposes. This is a deliberate assault on the appropriate to work of the state’s poorest,” a press assertion by PBKMS mentioned.

The union additionally added that job purposes by individuals made underneath MGNREGA have been rejected. “In simply 4 days, between twenty eighth and thirty first July 2025, 2,092 job purposes had been submitted throughout block places of work in Purulia, South 24 Parganas, and North 24 Parganas districts. Meanwhile, job purposes from 1,349 staff had been illegally rejected in 9 block places of work throughout 7 districts,” the union mentioned.

A consultant of PBKMS mentioned that after they contacted the NREGA Commissioner, he clearly said that no work will start until the Central Government points recent directions – a place that clearly undermines the authority of the Calcutta High Court.  

Alleging willful inaction by each the governments, the union said that the Central Government is equally responsible and by hiding behind Section 27 of the MGNREGA Act, “it continues to dam the discharge of funds and work, systematically depriving Bengal’s staff of their authorized proper to employment”.

The staff union additionally claimed that in Nadia district’s Krishnagar-II block, when a member of the union accompanied staff to submit job purposes, the BDO and a number of other panchayat pradhans responded with abuse and threats, calling him a “Bangladeshi” and threatening him with arrest and punitive motion.

Demanding the quick implementation of MGNREGA work in West Bengal, as per the High Court order, the PBKMS said that this blatant “non-compliance with a High Court order is unlawful, unjust, and unacceptable and it proceed our battle for the appropriate to work in each village and each district”.

Before the Lok Sabha polls in 2024, the Trinamool Congress together with MGNREGA staff held protests in Delhi demanding cost of wages and resumption of labor. However, West Bengal’s ruling social gathering response to the High Court order has been lukewarm. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has mentioned her authorities has began Karmashree Prakalpa to supply at the least 50 days of wage employment to every Job Card holder family in a monetary yr. The scheme, nonetheless, shouldn’t be seen on the grass roots degree .Work underneath MGNREGA had stopped within the State since December 2021 which has resulted in widespread rural misery and migration.