Congress slams new app-based attendance system for MGNREGA workers

The party called on the Modi government to scrap the app and compensate all workers who have lost their wages due to technical errors

Congress on Wednesday objected to the new app-based attendance system for MGNREGA workers, saying it is a "backdoor move" by the Narendra Modi government to reduce expenditure on the rural job guarantee scheme as people especially women and those from marginalised communities who do not have smartphones will lose wages.

The party called on the Modi government to scrap the app, compensate all workers who have lost their wages due to technical errors, and strengthen transparency and accountability through open muster rolls and social audits.

Ramesh said that the move by the Ministry of Rural Development to mandate that every MGNREGA worker at nine crore worksites register their attendance via an app, replacing physical muster rolls, will "open up new avenues of corruption" rather than improving transparency.

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"Workers will find it harder to get paid. People without expensive smartphones, especially women and those from marginalised communities, will be disempowered. In sum, it undermines the MGNREGA, a Sanjeevini for crores of rural poor," Ramesh, a former Rural Development Minister, said in a statement.

Ramesh said the app requires the mate at a worksite to record attendance of all workers and take a group photograph at two specified times before and after the work begins. Records are only on the mate’s phone, and there is no way to verify the group photo, he said adding, MGNREGA payments are linked to measurement of work done, which is completely absent from the app.

"The new system is not only unfit for purpose but undermines transparency. Earlier physical muster rolls required each worker to sign were available to all and subject to social audit. The new app has caused workers to be denied work or payment when 'the server is down'. Workers often wait for hours for the specified time for a group photo," he said.

"In addition, all mates must now have smartphones to use the app. People without expensive smartphones -- especially women, Dalits and Adivasis – cannot be mates," he said.

Referring to the "backdoor move" on MGNREGA against the backdrop of the delay in payment of Rs 8,450 crore to states, including West Bengal, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said it is also linked to the government's move to halve food grains to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act.

"MGNREGA and the NFSA have been the lifelines of the poor through the Modi government’s mismanagement of Covid-19 and the economy. The nation remembers that Modi mocked MGNREGA in Parliament, and was then forced during Covid-19 to make yet another U-turn and realise its value. The twin assault on these schemes today is a clear sign of Modi’s insensitivity to the poorest and most vulnerable Indians," he said.