RDPR dept issues circular to check misuse of MGNREGS monitoring system

Bengaluru: After the central government flagged misuse of the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Department, in a circular issued on July 17, issued orders to all officials to ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation of the scheme.

Among the issued flagged by the Centre include use of fake photographs, erroneous worker count, gender discrepancies, and multiple entries of a single worker.

Taking cognisance of all these problems, the RDPR Department has decided to put in place a photographic verification process across all levels.

Gram Panchayats have been ordered to cross check photographs of all workers daily, while taluk officials must verify photographs of 200 workers or 20% of the enrolled workers, whichever is less, every day. District-level officials must verify 30 to 100 photographs, while state-level officials will have to cross check 100 to 200 photographs or 5% of the photographs.

The circular warns officials of disciplinary action if they are caught entering false attendance data or fake photographs. Officials have further been asked to submit compliance reports to their respective Commissionerate, which will, in turn, be submitted to the Centre.

Staff deployed on the worksites will henceforth be required to take and upload photographs in the afternoon. Furthermore, monitoring cells constituted by staff from across departments must be formed at the district and taluk level to ensure completion of the verification process every day.