Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday shared a response by the government on TMC MP Derek O’Brien’s query about details of state-wise pending MGNREGA liabilities by the Centre to states and UTs. In an X post, Ramesh questioned the Centre’s decision to exclude West Bengal from its response.
Ramesh called the omission “extraordinary, unprecedented and unacceptable” in the post citing a starred question regarding delayed payments under the rural employment scheme.
O’Brien had asked the Centre for a detailed breakdown of pending liabilities under the wage, material and administrative components of MGNREGA since 2022, in addition to trends in household registrations and average workdays. In his query to the Centre, the TMC leader stressed upon an 8.6% rise in registered households between FY 2023-24 and 2024-25, contrasted by a 7.1% drop in average employment days per household and a 43% fall in average workdays per person.
Union Minister Shivraj Singh answers
In response, Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan submitted a written reply including a state-wise statement of pending liabilities. The document featured data from 33 states and union territories, but conspicuously left out West Bengal.
Ramesh questioned the motive behind the exclusion. “The Union Minister of Rural Development circulates an answer giving the sought for data for 33 states and UTs. But data for only one state – West Bengal – has NOT been provided. Why? This is extraordinary, unprecedented, and unacceptable,” he posted.
The Ministry of Rural Development has not offered any explanation for West Bengal’s absence in the list at the time of reporting this.
‘No pending liability for previous years’
The released data showed wide disparities in pending liabilities like from Andhra Pradesh’s 21.04% to Uttar Pradesh’s 123.16%. The government response also said that there is “no pending liability for previous years for Wages or Admin components”.