Kolkata, June 19 -- The Calcutta high court on Wednesday directed the Centre to resume the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in West Bengal from August 1. The court allowed the Centre to impose conditions and restrictions during the scheme's implementation in the state, which was suspended in 2022, in view of the allegations of financial irregularities. The order was passed by the division bench of chief justice TS Sivagnanam and justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) after a series of hearings on a petition filed by the Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity, a farmers body, challenging the non-payment of dues to daily wage labourers over allegations of embezzlement of funds. "All these allegations are from before 2022. You do whatever you want, but implement the scheme," the chief justice was quoted as saying by lawyers who attended Wednesday's hearing. "The scheme does not envisage a situation where it would be put to cold storage for eternity. The central government has sufficient means to enquire into the irregularity in disbursement of wages. However, a line can be drawn between past actions and future steps to be taken for implementation." Allowing the Centre to proceed with its enquiry, the court ordered that the scheme should be implemented in West Bengal from August 1. The written order in the case was not released by the high court till the filing of this report. West Bengal received Rs.7,507.80 crore in 2021-22 under MGNREGA, but received no central funds in the following three fiscal years. The Centre suspended its provision of funds for the scheme in March 2022, citing Section 27 of MGNREGA. In April 2025, the Calcutta high court asked the Centre to explain why the MGNREGA scheme shouldn't be prospectively implemented in West Bengal excluding four districts....