Calcutta HC instructs Centre to start 100-days MNREGA scheme quickly

In a breakthrough that could breathe new life into West Bengal's rural workforce, the Calcutta High Court today delivered a resounding directive to the state government: kickstart the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) 100-days employment program without further ado. The court's Division Bench, led by Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Pal, didn't mince words, echoing a June mandate that no central scheme can languish indefinitely in limbo. The central government's own lawyer, in a pivotal courtroom admission, declared zero objections to resuming operations— a sharp pivot from years of funding freezes that left millions of rural laborers high and dry.

This legal nudge follows the Supreme Court's endorsement of the High Court's earlier ruling, potentially unlocking a three-year backlog of dues and igniting job opportunities across the state's hinterlands, where families have teetered on the edge of economic despair.The saga traces back to a bitter funding standoff, with West Bengal deprived of MNREGA wages since 2022, a move the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has slammed as political sabotage by the BJP-led Centre.

Protests erupted in Kolkata's streets, delegations stormed Delhi's corridors, and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee penned urgent missives to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, pleading for the release of over Rs 1,500 crores in pending payments. For rural Bengal this isn't just paperwork; it's a lifeline and sense of relief promising 100 days of guaranteed work. The Centre's green light underscores a fragile federal truce, but it also spotlights MNREGA's enduring role as India's rural safety net—launched in 2005 to combat poverty, now a battleground for political one-upmanship. With affidavits due by mid-December, all eyes are on whether this court-ordered thaw will truly melt the ice, delivering not just jobs, but justice to Bengal's forgotten workforce.