Kolkata, June 18 -- As the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Central Government to resume the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in West Bengal from August 1, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee demanded that the BJP-led government release all pending dues that have been withheld for the past four years.

"The court has ordered that work must resume from August. But for four years, no work was done, no money was released. Our leaders staged protests in Delhi, and cases were filed against them. Central ministers didn't even meet them. We were humiliated in many ways," the chief minister said in a press conference at Nabanna on Wednesday.

"We paid the workers from state funds. That money must be re...