Jan 23 2015 : The Economic Times (Delhi)
Tablets to Boost MGNREGA Soon
Yogima Sharma
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New Delhi
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Govt will roll out the first phase of this system on April 1 in 35,000 gram panchayats
The Narendra Modi government is all set to give a digital boost to the flagship rural jobs programme by providing tablets to 2.65 lakh gram panchayats in the country to monitor its implementation.The mobile monitoring of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will cost the Centre about ` . 265 crore, with the rural development ministry distributing tablets costing `. 10,000 each to the gram panchayats, officials said.
The government will roll out the first phase of the mobile monitoring system on April 1 in 35,000 gram panchayats, a senior government official told ET.
The initiative comes after the government has already decided to switch over to direct benefit transfer under the scheme, which is expected to be expanded to the entire country in the next one year.
The previous UPA government had, in March last year, notified usage of tablets to monitor the scheme in 10,000 gram panchayats. However, the plan did not take off because of the unavailability of AakashIV tablets, promoted by the department of electronics and IT, to be used to digitally update the scheme.
The ministry has amended the earlier provision and extended the proposal to cover all gram panchayats in the country under the scheme, starting with 25,000 gram panchayats along with 10,000 identified by the pre vious government in the first phase.
The government hopes mobile monitoring will en able access to real-time dan ta at the village level, there by improving implementation of MGNREGA, which has drawn a lot of criticism for its failure to create new and durable assets.
“The government has decided to extend the mobile monitoring to all gram panchayats and technical or supervisory per sonnel involved in implementing MGNREGA to empower them with live data from worksites besides location of assets with geo-tagging for easy verification. This will lead to complete transparency in the system,“ said the official, requesting anonymity.
The states have been asked to identify the gram panchayats under the first phase by January 31 and immediately start procurement of devices as well as training of personnel, the official added.
According to the ministry officials, the mobile monitoring of MGNREGA will serve the twin purpose of making the scheme more effective and giving a panIndia platform to the government for rolling out its Digital India drive.
The annual allocation for MGNREGA is . 34,000 crore and so far nearly ` ` . 2 lakh crore have been spent under the scheme.The scheme guarantees 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. On average, 25% of rural households seek employment under the scheme annually.
The government will roll out the first phase of the mobile monitoring system on April 1 in 35,000 gram panchayats, a senior government official told ET.
The initiative comes after the government has already decided to switch over to direct benefit transfer under the scheme, which is expected to be expanded to the entire country in the next one year.
The previous UPA government had, in March last year, notified usage of tablets to monitor the scheme in 10,000 gram panchayats. However, the plan did not take off because of the unavailability of AakashIV tablets, promoted by the department of electronics and IT, to be used to digitally update the scheme.
The ministry has amended the earlier provision and extended the proposal to cover all gram panchayats in the country under the scheme, starting with 25,000 gram panchayats along with 10,000 identified by the pre vious government in the first phase.
The government hopes mobile monitoring will en able access to real-time dan ta at the village level, there by improving implementation of MGNREGA, which has drawn a lot of criticism for its failure to create new and durable assets.
“The government has decided to extend the mobile monitoring to all gram panchayats and technical or supervisory per sonnel involved in implementing MGNREGA to empower them with live data from worksites besides location of assets with geo-tagging for easy verification. This will lead to complete transparency in the system,“ said the official, requesting anonymity.
The states have been asked to identify the gram panchayats under the first phase by January 31 and immediately start procurement of devices as well as training of personnel, the official added.
According to the ministry officials, the mobile monitoring of MGNREGA will serve the twin purpose of making the scheme more effective and giving a panIndia platform to the government for rolling out its Digital India drive.
The annual allocation for MGNREGA is . 34,000 crore and so far nearly ` ` . 2 lakh crore have been spent under the scheme.The scheme guarantees 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. On average, 25% of rural households seek employment under the scheme annually.
