NREGA Sangharsh Morcha threatens protests in Bengal if MGNREGA not resumed by December

Almost a week after the Supreme Court of India removed all obstacles to the resumption of MGNREGA by rejecting the Union of India’s special leave petition, several farm labor unions have threatened to protest if the 100-day schedule is not resumed by December 2025 in West Bengal.

In a statement issued by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha in West Bengal on Wednesday, it said, “The work of NREGA has been stalled in Bengal due to the illegal actions of the Central Government to withhold funds and the lack of political will of the State Government to continue working. While both the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court have issued orders for revival of work from August 1, 2025, no such action is likely to come from either the Government. We will not tolerate such defiance of laws and court orders.” (November 5, 2025)

Before the Supreme Court order, the Calcutta High Court had directed that the program be restarted from August 1.

“Once the work has begun, we have decided to continue working together to ensure proper implementation of MGNREGA, especially corruption-free implementation with active and democratic participation of rural workers,” NREGA Sangharsh Morcha’s statement added.

Trinamool Congress leadership, including party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, lauded the resumption of the scheme, saying that the Union government had to bow to the pressure of the people of West Bengal. This happened even though the West Bengal government was merely a party to the petition filed by the Paschim Banga Khet Major Samity.

There were around 2.56 crore job cards in West Bengal when the program came to a halt about three years ago. The resumption of the 100-day program is an important political development ahead of Assembly elections scheduled for next year.

According to sources in the State Panchayat and Rural Development Department, work has begun to implement the apex court’s order and create the necessary infrastructure to restart the programme. The district administration has been instructed to quickly complete the work of updating e-KYC to verify the details of business card holders and restart the programme.