The central government has withheld release of Rs 7,500 crore in MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) funds to West Bengal for a year now over “non-compliance of central government directives”, a report released December 26, 2022 claimed. A whopping Rs 2,744 crore of the Rs 7,500 crore are due in MGNREGA wages to workers, who have not been paid since December 26, 2021, the report by research non-profit Libtech India stated. The central government has done this by invoking Section 27 of the 2005 Act, which allowed the government to “order stoppage of release of funds to the scheme” in some circumstances. “But this provision cannot be read as a license to stop wage payments to workers who have already worked. These workers have an unconditional right to be paid within 15 days,” the report said.
— source downtoearth.org.in | 26 Dec 2022