Centre updates Calcutta HC on recovered funds misappropriated under MGNREGA scheme in Bengal

Kolkata, April 10 (IANS) The Union government on Thursday updated a division bench of the Calcutta High Court on the recovered funds allotted under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) which had been reportedly misused in West Bengal.

As per the data furnished by the counsel of the Union government at the division bench of Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chattopadhyay, a total amount of Rs 2.20 crore of such misused MGNREGA funds has been recovered from just four districts of West Bengal.

The division bench had directed the Union Ministry of Rural Development to submit a detailed report on the matter to the court by April 15.

On Thursday, the additional solicitor general Ashoke Chakraborty informed the division bench that initial estimates have revealed that total misappropriation funds in these four districts of East Burdwan, Hooghly, Malda, and areas in Darjeeling district under Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) had been Rs 5.37 crore, out of which the recovery amount is Rs 2.20 crore.

On Thursday, the division bench observed that the Union government has the authority to intervene if there had been any corruption in the utilisation of funds under any central scheme. The main charge in the misappropriation of funds in these four districts was that those who are legally entitled to receive the benefits of the fund were deprived and the same was diverted to ineligible ones.

The division bench also observed that the Union government should initiate so that the recovered funds are paid to the deprived genuine beneficiaries.

The Union government stopped payment under the MGNREGA scheme to the West Bengal government since 2022 because of the massive misappropriations in the utilisation of funds.

The state government and the ruling Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, had constantly been accused the Union government of depriving the state of its legitimate share in the Central funds.

--IANS

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