Cooch Behar, West Bengal - In a dramatic display of defiance, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee publicly tore up a note from the central government regarding the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on Tuesday, December 9, 2025. Addressing a public meeting in Cooch Behar, Banerjee denounced the communication as "disrespectful" and declared that her state would not rely on "Delhi's charity".
The Chief Minister's actions stem from a long-standing dispute between the West Bengal government and the Union government over MGNREGA funds. The central government had suspended the scheme in West Bengal in March 2022, citing alleged corruption and irregularities in its implementation. Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) has repeatedly accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre of withholding funds to punish a political opponent and cripple Panchayat-level spending in politically sensitive districts.
Banerjee stated that the letter from the Centre, received just two days prior, imposed new conditions for resuming the MGNREGA scheme, including the submission of a quarterly labor budget starting December 6 and mandatory pre-employment training modules. She questioned the practicality of these conditions, arguing that there was insufficient time to implement them given the upcoming elections. "When will you train and when will you give the jobs?" she asked. "This piece of paper is valueless," she declared before tearing it up.
The Chief Minister framed her protest as a defense of Bengal's dignity and federal rights. "Bengal has never bowed its head and never will," she asserted. "Bengal knows how to walk with its head held high". Instead of accepting what she termed a "valueless and insulting diktat", Banerjee announced that her government would expand its own state-funded employment scheme, Karmashree. Under Karmashree, the state is currently providing 70 days of work, and Banerjee promised to increase it to 100 days.
Banerjee also reiterated her government's claim that the Centre owes West Bengal a substantial sum – reportedly over Rs 51,627 crore – in unpaid MGNREGA dues. She alleged that the central government was deliberately withholding these funds and might release a portion of them just before the 2026 Lok Sabha elections for political gain, leaving no time for actual development work.
The BJP has countered these allegations by stating that the MGNREGA funds were stopped due to corruption in the state. Suvendu Adhikari, a prominent BJP leader, accused the TMC government of siphoning off MGNREGA funds and asserted that Banerjee's theatrics would not distract from the alleged embezzlement.
The Calcutta High Court had earlier directed both the state and Union governments to resume the scheme from August 1, and the Supreme Court dismissed the Centre's appeal on September 27, ordering that the scheme be resumed in the state. However, the scheme has yet to be revived. With the state's NREGA Sangharsh Morcha threatening protests if the scheme is not resumed by the end of December, the conflict between the state and the Centre appears far from resolved.
