Centre notifies e-transfer of wages to accounts linked to an Aadhaar number; plans mobile monitoring system
Moulishree Srivastava
The mobile monitoring system will keep track of all works, workers’ attendance and work site measurement in real time. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
New Delhi: In a bid to streamline the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and plug leakages in the payments process, the government has formally notified that wages under the rural job guarantee programme will be electronically credited to workers’ accounts linked to an Aadhaar number.
The rural development ministry also issued a directive to the states to adopt the electronic fund management system (e-FMS) before April to curtail parking of funds at various levels that result in inefficient fund flow. To keep track of all works, workers’ attendance and work site measurement in real time, the rural ministry plans to roll out a mobile monitoring system for MGNREGS.
E-FMS is a mechanism for transfer of funds from the Centre through an online system to states that provides an uninterrupted access to funds to districts down to Gram Panchayat levels and avoid diversions.
In a 23 December letter, the ministry of rural development said, “MGNREGS has now been formally notified under DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) scheme by the Ministry of Finance covering 300 districts in the country.” Of these 300 districts, 287 are covered under MGNREGS. DBT involves electronic transfer of wages from a single e-FMS account directly into the workers’ account linked to an Aadhaar number. “The link with Aadhaar numbers is expected to sanitize the database of MGNREGS apart from allowing faster and more transparent transfer of wages to workers,” the letter said.
In another letter dated 22 December, the department of rural development said even as 94% of Gram Panchayats under the MGNREGS have moved to e-FMS, “it is found that even in the GPs where e-FMS has been implemented, funds are lying with sub-state accounts on the ground that material and administrative payments are not yet bought under e-FMS.” “As a result, the desired optimization of funds has not been fully materialized,” it added.
The union rural ministry has directed all state rural development departments to proactively bring all payment modules including wages, material and administrative under e-FMS on or before 1 April.
Separately, on Wednesday, the rural ministry said it is likely to introduce the mobile monitoring system for effective implementation of MGNREGS which will be implemented on a pilot basis.
The Centre has recently sanctioned Rs.147 crore to states to strengthen the social audit structures. The overall 6% administrative cost wasn’t adequate so an additional grant was sanctioned. While all processes under MGNREGS programme are linked to NREGASoft, a software which collates related data to provide a real-time data visibility, the mobile monitoring system will provide the mobile interface to NREGASoft and allow an online and real-time updation of database and monitoring of all the processes under the scheme.
It’ll use the existing GSM (global system for mobile) or GPRS (general packet radio service) connectivity and a low-cost portable computing device. Earlier this year, the monitoring scheme was not able to take off even after the first instalment of funds were released to nine states which came forward to implement the scheme, since the Aakash-IV tablet, which was prescribed in the scheme and in the sanction order, was not available in the market, said an internal letter dated October issued by the department of rural development.
The government thus amended the earlier scheme, saying there will be no centralized procurement of the device as the functionaries (people responsible for operating MGNREGS) will be free to buy any device, which satisfies required specifications. The device’s cost or Rs.10,000, whichever is lower, will be reimbursed to the functionary.
Neelashi Mangal and Garima Singh contributed to this story.