13751 - Aadhaar linking cuts NREGS wage delays, fund transfers double too - TNN

Aadhaar linking cuts NREGS wage delays, fund transfers double too

Rajeev Deshpande | TNN | Updated: Jun 27, 2018, 07:08 IST

• On a broad scale, irrespective of distress conditions, there was an increase of over Rs 2 crore in amount disbursed in banks after Aadhaar-linked payment
• In the post-ALP period, the average of individuals and households allotted work increased by 12,597 and 7,579

NEW DELHI: Linkage of MGNREGS accounts with an Aadhaar-linked payment (ALP) system significantly boosted efficiency of wage transfers, doubling funds transferred and increasing work allotted in times of distress as compared to previous years when demand actually dropped during economic stress due to leakage and delays in payments. 

An Indian School of Business study that examined annual data for blocks which had drought conditions in financial years 2012-2017 showed clear changes in the pre- and post-ALP system with regard to work generated, individuals and households benefited and the speed and volume of bank transfers that point to an increased uptake of the workfare programme. 

On a broad scale, irrespective of distress conditions, there was an increase of over Rs 2 crore in amount disbursed in banks after ALP. There was a manifold rise in direct transfer beneficiaries with funds transferred in FY 2015 totalling over Rs 9 crore and the figure rising to Rs 14 crore in FY 2016, a 50% jump in a year. 

In the post-ALP period, the average of individuals and households allotted work increased by 12,597 and 7,579. In the pre-ALP period, households and persons demanding work declined across blocks facing drought — delayed payments and leakages made those seeking succour look for more immediate, even if less paying, options to tide over the bad times. 

“We have looked at the annual data and analysed distress in terms of a 75% or 50% deficiency of rainfall and also in terms of high temperatures. These can be seen to be conditions that cause rural distress,” said ISB’s Prof Ashwini Chhatre, who said ALP made the scheme “counter cyclical” — higher demand in times of economic distress. 

This was in contrast to the scheme being “cyclical” (demand dropping when economic activity shrinks) which defeated the purpose of MGNREGS. The target population seemed to have learned of quicker payments with the provision of jobs becoming counter cyclical, with an increase of 625.62 (households) and 2,492.84 (persons) allotted work. When compared to an average of 7,477 households and 12,433 individuals, there was an increase of 8.5% and 20%. 

The study, ‘A Friend Indeed: Does the Use of Biometric Digital Identity Make Welfare Programmes Counter-Cyclical’, was authored by Shradhey Parijat Prasad, Nishka Sharma and Prasanna Tantri. “The magnitude of increased work in distressed blocks is higher in post-ALP. We also find that the total muster rolls filled and total persons worked increases in distressed block years only after implementation of ALP,” they wrote. 

Chhatre said the paper did not examine exclusions and there were reports of delays in terms of transfers between the Centre, states and banks. But on the whole, the volume and speed of transfers, as seen by annual data, had gone up, aided by rules requiring fund transfer orders to be prepared within 15 days of work done. 

The policy implications are significant as with MGNREGS becoming counter-cyclical, any increase in demand could well indicate signs of stress. These need not be related to deficient rainfall, that can be mapped through meteorological means, but also point to specific and localised reasons that can prompt governments to launch closer investigations.

The big difference in ALP is that it does away with the cumbersome old payment system that was multi-layered — gram panchayats notified mandal offices which passed on the payment demand to state offices which then crosschecked and released funds that travelled down from district to mandal offices and were transferred to gram panchayat accounts for final distribution to beneficiaries.

The government’s drive to generate bank accounts through the Jan Dhan Yojana that also sought linkage with mobile phones and Aadhaar made verification of identity and the poor beneficiary’s access to her account a much more efficient and foolproof process while eliminating a host of intermediaries.

TOP COMMENT

Surprising to see no comments on this whereas the other way around if petrol prices are increased by 10 paise people will jump and start abusing the govt.

Kailash Nair

Post-ALP, the increase in average number of muster rolls filled was 5,727 and the average of households that reached 100 days went up to 621 households. The average person days worked was 3,26,019 days. On an average, amount disbursed to bank accounts was Rs 2.7 crore.

11814 - Is Jharkhand's ambitious Aadhaar linkage derailing MGNREGA? - Down to Earth.Org

Is Jharkhand's ambitious Aadhaar linkage derailing MGNREGA?

Deepanwita Niyogi  

 @deepanwita_t

 | 

Thursday 31 August 2017

For four years, Jharkhand has been experimenting with Aadhaar-MGNREGA link with missionary zeal. Its experience holds lessons for all the states that have recently started toeing the line

MGNREGA beneficiaries in Sasandih village in East Singhbhum district work on a mango plantations. Several of them have not received wages for the past two months as the operator wrongly entered their Aadhaar numbers in the management information system maintained under the scheme (Photo: Photographs: Adithyan)

Quick Read

• In 2013, Jharkhand became one of the first states to link Aadhaar to the payment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 
• In the past four years, 99 per cent of MGNREGA workers in the state have enrolled themselves for Aadhaar and an equal percentage of workers have opened bank accounts for MGNREGA
• The figure is much higher than the national average—87 per cent MGNREGA workers across the country have bank accounts and 86 per cent have Aadhaar cards

Call it the result of clerical oversights or hasty implementation of a programme, a bold initiative by the Jharkhand government to plug corruption and bring about transparency in welfare schemes is backfiring, or at least, so it appears.

In 2013, Jharkhand became one of the first states to link Aadhaar to the payment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Then its objective was to ensure direct transfer of wages to the beneficiary’s bank account by seeding it with the 12-digit unique identification number on Aadhaar card. This would arrest fund leakages due to identification and authentication errors, such as the existence of duplicate or ghost beneficiaries, which is inherent in welfare schemes.

In the past four years, 99 per cent of MGNREGA workers in the state have enrolled themselves for Aadhaar and an equal percentage of workers have opened bank accounts for MGNREGA. These are much higher than the national average—87 per cent MGNREGA workers across the country have bank accounts and 86 per cent have Aadhaar cards. In fact in Jharkhand, the number of workers holding bank accounts has increased from 15 to almost 100 per cent in just one year, says Siddharth Tripathi, MGNREGA commissioner of the state.

Beneficiaries of the scheme and activists working at the grassroots level, however, say the problems are far from over in the state. Many who could earlier benefit from the scheme are now without work or are not receiving wages. Then there are those whose hard-earned money gets deposited in others’ accounts.

In Jareya village of Ranchi district, women members of the village self-help group, told Down To Earth (DTE) that most of them have not received wages since opening bank accounts for MGNREGA a few months ago. “When we asked the MGNREGA mate (work supervisor) about the delay, she told us that probably our Aadhaar numbers have not been seeded with our bank accounts and advised us to visit the bank. But going to the bank at Namkum block would mean shelling out at least Rs 40. Who has that kind of money?” asks Meena Devi, who has been waiting for wages for the last two months.

Kuldeep Mishra, district resource person of Ramgarh, responsible for conducting social audits under MGNREGA, admits that people are not getting timely wages despite digital transfer. While Mishra does not provide a reason for such delays, village heads and panchayat functionaries say a new set of problems are emerging due to the initiative that was supposed to smoothen the functioning of the scheme.

Hit by overzealous reform

Saraswati Devi, former mukhiya (village head) of Rampur, says several people in the gram panchayat are not able to avail wages under MGNREGA as their bank accounts are yet to be seeded with Aadhaar. “Most people enrolled under the programme are unlettered. So there are a lot of discrepancies in the documents they submit while opening a bank account. One common discrepancy is inconsistent spellings of their names or that of their village. This defeats the seeding process,” says Mahadev Munda, current mukhiya of Rampur.

Those who have successfully managed to get their accounts seeded with Aadhaar are also not free from trouble. There is a lot of pressure on operators at the block office who maintain the management information system (MIS) of MGNREGA since the government launched the initiative of linking Aadhaar with MGNREGA, says James Herenj of non-profit Jharkhand NREGA Watch. They often have to work till late hours, and this is resulting in typing mistakes and errors in data entry. In many cases, someone’s Aadhaar number is getting linked to someone else’s bank account. As a result wages are getting credited to wrong accounts, says Herenj.

In 2016, ICICI Bank opened the MGNREGA account for Ramani Soren of Laylum village in Boram block. It assured door-to-door service. But she is yet to receive any as bank mitras have not visited her since

One such irregularity came to the fore at a public hearing of the MGNREGA social audit conducted in Mandu block of Ramgarh district. Sanjay Manjhi from Jobla village claimed that his account has been credited with Rs 11,356 despite the fact that he did not participate in any MGNREGA works. The MIS shows that he has worked for 68 days on a farm pond. The auditor has now ordered an inquiry into the matter and asked the officials to recover the amount from Manjhi. An analysis of MGNREGA fund transfer order of Singhbhum’s Sonua block by DTE shows such irregularities are becoming the norm. In May this year, wages earned by Sukhmati Gope, a resident of Sonua, got credited to the account of Azad Mahila Mandal, a self-help group in the block. That month, the wages earned by another resident Roibari Gope were credited to the account of one Purna Gope on three occasions.

Herenj highlights another oversight introduced at the stage of updating the MIS. To achieve 100 per cent coverage, the operators at times exclude those workers from the system who do not have Aadhaar cards or are yet to submit those. In the process a lot many workers in need of the welfare scheme get overlooked. Mishra admits that despite the Supreme Court judgement in April this year that Aadhaar is not mandatory for MGNREGA works, only those with Aadhaar cards are getting jobs. State government data shows that till July 2017 bank accounts of only 86 per cent of beneficiaries were seeded with Aadhaar. This means till that month, over 383,000 households in the state were not part of the Aadhaar -MGNREGA link.

Munda cites a peculiar problem: several beneficiaries are clueless about the account that receives MGNREGA wages. Since the introduction of Aadhaar-based transfer, most people dependent on government doles have multiple bank accounts, which they have opened under various welfare schemes. For instance, Munda explains, a beneficiary may have MGNREGA account in one bank and a Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana account in another bank. MIS operators run the risk of getting confused and swapping the details of one account with the other. This makes it difficult for people to track their wages. In Ranchi’s Byangdih village, Jeet Munda has accounts at three banks—the Gramin Bank, Bank of India and Cooperative Bank. Though his MGNREGA account is with Bank of India, the wages kept getting credited to Cooperative Bank for quite a few months. It was only in July that Mahadev Munda helped him identify the correct bank with the help of MGNREGA fund transfer order. Such errors could be inadvertent or deliberate, says Debmalya Nandy who works on MGNREGA in Jharkhand.

Since in the new set-up, MIS operators hold a position where corruption can creep in, the government now plans to make them responsible for any irregularity in wage payments, Nandy adds. But will the government be able to keep a tab on banks—the other key player in wage transfer? 

Boram mess up

In 2016, ICICI Bank opened MGNREGA accounts for some 6,000 of the 18,000 beneficiaries in East Singhbhum district’s Boram block, but without their knowledge. “One day,” recalls Labakhan Mahato of Bongora village, “the bank officials came to our village and collected our Aadhaar numbers, saying they are opening accounts under the Atal Pension Yojana (a Union government pension scheme for unorganised sector). But since then our wages stopped being credited to our MGNREGA accounts in Bank of India.” While officials at the block office have told him that his wages are now being credited to ICICI Bank, Mahato has no way to confirm this as the nearest branch is in Jamshedpur, 30 km from Boram. Besides, the bank has not given him any passbook, chequebook or ATM card. “All they have given us is a biometric card with a number printed on it,” Mahato adds.

Calloused fingers of beneficiaries often come in the way of their authentication under Aadhaar-linked welfare schemes

Using the biometric card, workers can withdraw their wages only from the micro-ATM carried by bank mitra (business correspondents). But social activists in the block say bank mitras rarely visit the area. Even if they do, several workers fail to authenticate their identity due to calloused fingers or poor internet connectivity in the village. In Bongora, for instance, people walk 5 km to get internet connectivity. 

Unable to withdraw their rightful dues, several beneficiaries have recently written to the block administration. Block Development Officer Sunil Kumar Prajapati told DTE that ICICI Bank was allowed to take over MGNREGA accounts as it promised on-site payment with micro-ATMs. The MIS roll shows that the money is being transferred to ICICI, but surprisingly workers’ accounts show zero-balance. His administration now plans to initiate an inquiry against ICICI Bank and transfer MGNREGA accounts of aggrieved workers to Bank of India.

DTE contacted ICICI bank correspo ndent Bibek Kumar Sharma, who monitors payments by bank mitras, to understand why the bank has failed to disburse wages. “We do door-to-door payment every day. The block coordinator carries Rs 2-4 lakh cash so that the payment is instant. Micro-ATM ensures that there is no fraud. Only those whose fingerprints do not match fail to avail their wages,” Sharma claims.

Find the real disconnect

Problems like fingerprint mismatch, poor internet connectivity and banks lacking enough branches in rural areas have mar red other Aadhaar-linked welfare schemes like the public distribution system. “The government believes that Aadhaar is the only way to curb corruption. Whereas, we need more bank branches, internet conne ctivity and electricity to track money,” says Gurjeet Singh, state coordinator for the social audit under MGNREGA.

Agrees development economist Jean Dreze who says the government has kept changing the payment system from post office to cheque to banks. “It has proved problematic for people. The linkage with Aadhaar further complicates the matter. The government has a notion that Aadhar is a magic bullet for corruption,” he adds.

Tripathy admits that beneficiaries are facing problems due to poor bank coverage. “We are planning to open cooperative bank branches in every panchayat. In a few days, MGNREGA in Jharkhand will be one of the best implemented programmes,” he adds.

10832 - On Rajyasabha today - Aadhaar & MNREGA

On Rajyasabha today - Aadhaar & MNREGA

Questions asked today in Rajya Sabha on the Aadhaar  -

1. Making Aadhaar cards mandatory under MGNREGS

SHRI D. RAJA: Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a) whether Government is considering a proposal to make Aadhaar cards mandatory for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS); and

(b) if so, the details thereof?

Response by MoRD -

(a) & (b): In pursuance of the provisions of Section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targetted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services Act, 2016 (18 of 2016), the Central Government in the Ministry of Rural Development has notified on 3rd January, 2017 that any individuals registered under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA who is not yet enrolled for Aadhaar shall have to apply for Aadhaar enrolment by 31st March 2017, and in case, she or he is entitled to obtain Aadhaar as per the provisions of section 3 of the said Act, such individuals may visit any Aadhaar enrolment centre to get enrolled for Aadhaar. Till the time Aadhaar is assigned to the individual, she or he shall be allowed to work under the Mahatma Gandhi NREG Act, 2005 subject to the production of the following documents, namely: -

(A) job card issued under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA;

(B) (i) if he has enrolled, his Aadhaar Enrolment ID slip; or
(ii) a copy of his request made for Aadhaar enrolment.

(C) (i) the voter identity card issued by the Election Commission of India; or (ii) ration card; or (iii) the driving licence issued by the Licencing Authority under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988; or (iv) the certificate of identity having photo of such member issued by a Gazetted Officer or a Tehsildar on an official letter head; or (v) the Kisan passbook with photo; or (vi) any other document specified by the State Government:

2. Aadhaar for MGNREGA benefits

SHRI HUSAIN DALWAI: Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a) whether Aadhaar has been made mandatory to avail the benefits of MGNREGA;

(b) if so, the reasons therefor;

(c) whether the Ministry is cognizant of the decision of the Supreme Court wherein it has been categorically stated that Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory for any welfare scheme; and

(d) if so, the reasons for taking a policy decision contrary to Supreme Court directives?

Answer -
(a) : No, Sir.

(b) : Does not arise.

(c)&(d): In pursuance of the provisions of Section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targetted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services Act, 2016 (18 of 2016), the Central Government in the Ministry of Rural Development has notified on 3rd January, 2017 that any individual registered under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA who is not yet enrolled for Aadhaar shall have to apply for Aadhaar enrolment by 31st March 2017, and in case she or he is entitled to obtain Aadhaar as per the provisions of section 3 of the said Act, such individuals may visit any Aadhaar enrolment centre to get enrolled for Aadhaar. Till the time Aadhaar is assigned to the individual, she or he shall be allowed to work under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA Act 2005, subject to the production of the following documents, namely: -

(A) job card issued under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA;

(B) (i) if he has enrolled, his Aadhaar Enrolment ID slip; or
(ii) a copy of his request made for Aadhaar enrolment.

(C) (i) the voter identity card issued by the Election Commission of India; or (ii) ration card; or (iii) the driving licence issued by the Licencing Authority under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988; or (iv) the certificate of identity having photo of such member issued by a Gazetted Officer or a Tehsildar on an official letter head; or (v) the Kisan passbook with photo; or (vi) any other document specified by the State Government:

*****

8383 - Aadhaar seeding in MGNREGS database to be completed by August 31 - The Hindu

SALEM, July 27, 2015

Aadhaar seeding in MGNREGS database to be completed by August 31

S.P. SARAVANAN

The process of Aadhaar seeding in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) database is expected to be completed by August 31.

To ensure greater speed, transparency and accuracy in transfer of funds to the workers bank account, Salem and Namakkal is one of the 300 districts in the country where Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system is implemented.

However, Aadhaar numbers are yet to be seeded in both the districts that help to eliminate duplicate and bogus records of workers. Hence, the MGNREGA Division of the Ministry of Rural Development has asked the officials to complete the seeding before August 31.

All functionaries at the block level and panchayat level are asked to visit the houses of the active workers and verify whether they have enrolled in Aadhaar and received the number.

If the worker has migrated permanently or they have expired, their records need to be deleted, officials said. Also, after the field verification, data needs to be updated in the portal so that accurate details about workers are available, they added.

Officials said that though it is not mandatory to enrol Aadhaar number, transfer of funds would be difficult, if errors are found in account number, name of bank or branch. Hence, to overcome these problems and ensure the wages reach the right beneficiary, seeding of Aadhaar number is done.

7718 - Govt's move worries MGNREGS workers - TNN

Govt's move worries MGNREGS workers

Gokul R, 

TNN | Apr 3, 2015, 11.20AM IST

TRICHY: The latest notification from the central government mandating Aadhaar card for employees under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) triggered panic among the beneficiaries in rural areas.

However, the district administration assured to give them job without the card but advised them to get the fool-proof unique identification number for future purposes.

MGNREGS, a scheme which ensured regular work for 100 days a year for an employee in rural parts of the district, is going through some changes. The latest is the compulsory submission of the card number to the respective local body heads to enrol themselves for the work from April 1.

The assessment of the scheme for the past few years reportedly unearthed some malpractices to swindle the wages meant for genuine workers by enrolling fake beneficiaries in some states including Tamil Nadu with the connivance of local body heads.

Such misuses prompted the central government to make the Aadhaar number compulsory for any beneficiary to enrol in the scheme with a view to eradicate fake beneficiaries.

In Trichy, 145 lakh man days were utilized at the cost of Rs 173 crore for unskilled wages, Rs 5.55 crore for skilled and semi-skilled wages and Rs 9 crore of material components under MGNREGS in the financial year 2014-15.

Fixed as Rs 80 for an employee for one day work at the commencement of the scheme nationally, the maximum wage a day touched Rs 167. According to officials, the employees are provided Rs 140 minimum per day depending upon their work. The manpower which was initially utilized for deepening and strengthening of village tanks is now used for asset creation.

At this juncture, the central government told the respective state governments to get the Aadhaar numbers of the employees for guaranteeing them 100 days of work.

When it comes to implementation, it is opposed by the villagers. 

On Thursday, a group of people in Therku Poigaipatti near Manapparai blocked the Manapparai-Puthanatham road to demand to allow them to work under MGNREGS without Aadhaar card.

They complained that they were not enrolled for Aadhaar so far hence they were unable to produce them. In some places, they were allowed to work if they submitted the enrolment identification (EID) number. Going by the statistics, Aadhaar card has to be given to 25, 82,854 people of which 21,11,603 were covered in national population register (NPR) and Aadhaar card was generated for 21,09,001 people.

The officials said Aadhaar registration drive is going on in taluk offices.

Taking into consideration the delay in getting the Aadhaar, district administration has eased the norms for enrolment of employees under MGNREGS in Trichy.

"We won't insist the employees to produce the Aadhaar number for MGNREGS work. But people must realize that the the card will benefit them lot and should get them registered for the card," Trichy district collector Dr K S Palanisamy told ToI.

7548 - Prepare action plan for new water resources: Collector - The Hindu

TIRUVANNAMALAI, March 14, 2015

Updated: March 14, 2015 05:45 IST

Prepare action plan for new water resources: Collector

Tiruvannamalai Collector A. Gnanasekharan has asked the Block Development Officers of the various panchayats in the district to prepare an action plan on the creation of new water resources after compiling the details of the requirements of open wells, hand pumps, mini motor pumps, extension of pipelines and deepening of wells in the village panchayats in all the blocks in order to undertake a need-based augmentation of the water resources in the district.

Reviewing the progress of the rural development works in the district with the BDOs, zonal officers, panchayat union engineers, officials of line departments and work supervisors here on Friday, the Collector also asked the BDOs to ensure 100 per cent completion of the work of construction of one lakh individual hygienic toilets in all the houses in the village panchayats sanctioned for 2014-15 before March 31.

He also asked them to reach the target for construction of Solar-Powered Green Houses and houses under the Indira Awas Yojana before the end of this month.

Mr. Gnanasekharan asked the BDOs and union engineers to ensure the implementation of the various works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) without any let-up. He wanted them to get the number of employment cards under the scheme verified through the Deputy BDOs and submit the final report to him.

He told the BDOs to ensure that the work on the digging of 3875 farm ponds under the MGNREGS was completed before March 31. Agriculture department officials too should be involved in the task.

All workers engaged in MGNREGS should be issued Aadhaar cards before March 31 and the details should be uploaded in the website, he said.

All workers engaged in MGNREGS should be issued Aadhaar cards before March 31

7509 - Aadhaar number, job scheme wages to be linked - Deccan herald

Aadhaar number, job scheme wages to be linked

Bengaluru,dhns: March 5, 2015

The Aadhaar card numbers will be linked to the wages of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme from April 1, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister H K Patil said on Wednesday.

He told reporters that all beneficiaries of the scheme would be asked to furnish their Aadhaar card numbers so that they could be linked to their bank accounts for payment of wages. An awareness drive in this regard would be launched soon. Other rural development programmes such as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, would also be made Aadhaar-based, Patil added.

RDPR  Commissioner Munish Moudgil said  that 44 per cent of those who have enrolled for the job guarantee scheme have furnished their Aadhaar card numbers so far. The others would be asked to furnish their Aadhaar card numbers soon. Those who have not registered for Aadhaar cards can do so by visiting their nearest Nada Kacheris, he said.

Earlier in the day,  Punjab RDPR  Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka and a team of officials, who are visiting the State, held discussions with Patil and the department officials.
Singh said his state was keen to replicate the  solid waste management in gram panchayats and administrative set up of panchayat institutions practised in State.