Mgnrega issues in Bengal & Punjab: Won't allow misappropriation, says govt in Lok Sabha

The government will not allow the "misappropriation" and "rebranding" of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by the states, the government told the Lok Sabha, referring to issues in West Bengal and Punjab. Rejecting the Opposition's charges of delay and non-payment of MGNREGA funds in some states, Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the Centre will not politically discriminate against the states in the disbursal of funds for central welfare schemes.

Regarding a question on disbursal of MGNREGA and PM Kisan Samman Nidhi funds for Tamil Nadu, Chouhan said funds were being promptly dispersed without any political discrimination against the states but lamented that when he visited Tamil Nadu twice in the past, the state agriculture minister and rural development ministers were not present at the meetings. Kalyan Banerjee of Trinamool accused the Centre of discriminating against the people of West Bengal and asked why the state has been denied the benefits of MGNREGA funds in the name of having 25 lakh illegal workers under the scheme and asked why the Centre cannot resume payment to the state after dealing with the issue of fake workers' list.

Pointing out that Banerjee has been repeating the question, minister of state of rural development Kamlesh Paswan said the MGNREGA scheme has been "misappropriated" in West Bengal besides it being "rebranded" as a state government scheme, and the state government broke the tender into small segments.