India, Nov. 8 -- In what could come as a boon to the Trinamool Congress Government ahead of next year's Assembly elections, the Calcutta High Court (HC) on Friday directed the Centre to file an affidavit within a month regarding the release of pending funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) amounting to several thousand crores.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De directed the Union government to file the affidavit within four weeks, writing how it had planned to release the MNREGA (more popularly called 100 days' work scheme)

Funds which, according to the allegations levelled by the Mamata Banerjee Government, had been held back by the Centre for the past ...