In its present framework, the Centre provides 100% of the labour cost and 75% of the material cost for the works carried under the MGNREGS. This means the scheme pretty much runs on its money. This gives the Union government the right to demand accountability for the money spent. An HT report published on March 31 shows that misappropriation of MGNREGS funds is not a problem confined to West Bengal. Mandatory social audits have reported similar instances from other states. While the money allegedly siphoned off from other states is relatively small compared to the overall allocations, the stopping of allocations to West Bengal was justified on account of a procedural stalemate between the Centre and the state. The ultimate sufferers here are the poorest of the poor.

Is there a larger takeaway from these facts? Two things can be said. One, corruption in welfare programmes, while reprehensible, cannot be weeded out mechanically. It requires investing in institutional and political safeguards such as social audits in MGNREGS’s case. Both the BJP and the TMC could have taken steps to evolve bipartisan committees to solve the stalemate. Perhaps West Bengal’s party-society polity does not allow for bipartisan polity at the grass roots. Two, the funding-implementation asymmetry in centrally sponsored schemes (CSSs) — the Union government provide the funds and state governments implement them — is always a delicate equilibrium which can be destabilised easily. As CSSs gain importance and politics becomes more polarised, preserving this equilibrium and with it, the safeguard for India’s poor, will require maturity.