Finally, online salary payment for panchayat staff

In a rudimentary, yet significant reform, Karnataka has decided to switch to a system where 60,000-odd gram panchayat employees will be paid salaries online, directly into their bank accounts before the fifth of every month.

The new system - Electronic Fund Management System (eFMS) - will be rolled out in all gram panchayats, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) principal secretary L K Atheeq has said in a directive issued to chief executives of zilla panchayats.

The eFMS module has been developed in the RDPR’s Panchatantra software to enable online payment of salaries, Atheeq said. This was first piloted in gram panchayats in Chikkaballapur. It will now be extended to all 5,960 gram panchayats in the state. The average salary outgo for gram panchayat employees is around Rs 900 crore every year.

“At present, salaries are paid through cheques,” Atheeq told DH. “And, there was a long-pending demand to streamline this in gram panchayats whose employees faced erratic salary payouts.”

Gram panchayat employees have staged protests in the past against pending salaries.

Under the new system, salaries will be paid to the Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts directly. According to Atheeq, the eFMS will not only ensure regularity in salary payment, but also plug any pilferage.

“Zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat employees are on the government’s payroll. So, they don’t have any problem. But, gram panchayat employees are at the mercy of the gram panchayat. They are an exploited lot,” Atheeq said.

The RDPR department has fixed February 10 as the deadline for gram panchayats to compile details of employees and their verified bank accounts. This has to be entered into the Panchatantra software before February 25.

“We have asked gram panchayats to operate a separate bank account for salary payments,” Atheeq said. And, it is to this dedicated account that statutory salary grants and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) money will be put.

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