New Central diktat threatens MGNREGS implementation in Telangana

A new diktat from the union government is now threatening to affect the very implementation of works under the scheme in the State.

Hyderabad: Soon after the State raised the flag of protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre’s misinformation campaign that alleges diversion of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) funds in Telangana, a new diktat from the union government is now threatening to affect the very implementation of works under the scheme in the State.

The new directive, issued late last month by the union Ministry of Rural Development and made mandatory from January 1, makes it compulsory for digital capturing of attendance of workers employed under the MGNREGS. The move, which the Centre is touting as a bid to arrest corruption and irregularities, however appears to have numerous shortfalls including field supervisors not being equipped with smartphones and lack of technical or logistical support and internet connectivity.

The Centre’s directive says it is mandatory for all work sites to register attendance on a mobile app, the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS), irrespective of the number of workers engaged except for ‘individual beneficiary schemes/projects’. This requires uploading time-stamped and geo-tagged photographs of workers twice a day.

The Centre had rolled out a pilot project for this on May 16 last year, citing issues such as corruption, accountability and duplication in muster rolls. Though several issues including technical glitches were brought to its notice, the Centre still decided to go ahead with extending the NMMS for implementation across the country, without addressing the problems.

Telangana has been in the forefront among States registering highest number of working days per person since the State’s formation. In terms of person days generated between April and September this year, Telangana generated 9.92 crore person days in the six-month period this year. Officials fear that the Centre’s latest diktat could affect overall person days.

“We have flagged several technical and sociological issues pertaining to the app usage. We fear that it would discourage the workers from attending MGNREGS works which would affect its implementation in the State,” a Rural Development department official told Telangana Today.

According to officials, geo-tagged and time-stamped photographs of workers are to be taken twice a day at the worksite to check for fake attendance on muster rolls. However, this requires workers to stay around at the worksite till they are photographed. Poor internet connectivity and technical errors have repeatedly affected online capture of attendance during the pilot project.

Further, the system is made more complicated with officials required to match hundreds of photos of workers taken at worksites with those on their job cards on a daily basis, which is being termed as next to impossible. The workers are also being forced to work for a specified number of hours as against the initial objective of MGNREG Act which enables workers to receive payment of wages on a piece rate basis than time rate basis.

Several organisations like People’s Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG), which is advocating MGNREGA since 2004, have been raising objections at the Centre’s decision saying this was not going to weed out corruption and would only discourage workers from taking up work.

Adding to the woes, the app has been designed completely in English and there is no technical help provided to redress several problems that the users face. In case of a technical glitch, the workers have no option but go home as attendance cannot be registered.

The MGNREGS in Telangana has been in the news of late, with the union government serving a notice to the State government late last year to return Rs.151.9 crore of MGNREGS funds spent on construction of drying platforms under the scheme, stating that they were not permitted under the Central scheme guidelines. The State had termed the Centre’s move as vengeful more so because the Centre had allowed States with coastal lines to build fish drying platforms under the same scheme.