Centre, civil society continue to spar over manual attendance for MGNREGS

Civil society says getting manual attendance approved by district officers is tedious

Although the central government has in a Parliament reply tried to clarify issues around the mandatory Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and compulsory attendance of workers through a mobile application (app) — national mobile monitoring system (NMMS) — civil society activists and others say that getting any manual attendance approved through district officials, as laid down in the revised system, is in itself problematic and cumbersome for many.

The government in a Parliament reply last week clarified that the deadline for the former (ABPS) has been extended till March 31 due to request from states, while in the case of latter (mobile app-based attendance), the district programme officer has been authorised to approve manual attendance — but only in ‘exceptional’ circumstances.

For the past few weeks, civil society organisations have been protesting in the Capital and elsewhere against both provisions which have been made compulsory for MGNREGA.

The Centre in a Parliament reply said that in accordance with the request made by several states, it has been decided by the ministry that until March 31, 2023, the wage payment of beneficiaries may be made either using ABPS or the National Automated Clearing House (NACH), depending upon the status on ABPS of a beneficiary.

“Thus, there may be two options to be used for making wage payments as under. Under Option 1, if a beneficiary is ABPS-enabled, the payment will be made through ABPS only, while in the case of second, if in case due to some technical reasons, the beneficiary is not enabled for ABPS, the programme officer can choose NACH as the mode for making wage payment,” read the statement.

In the case of attendance through the mobile app as part of NMMS, which has been made compulsory for marking attendance in worksites, except for work done on individual land from January 1, the government said that the NMMS app has been modified to capture second photograph just after four hours from capturing the morning attendance, along with the first photograph.

To address the problem of mobile connectivity hindering the capturing of attendance leading to no registration of work, the government clarified that morning attendance, along with the first photograph and the second photograph, can be captured in offline mode and uploaded once the device works in network areas.

“Also, in the case of exceptional circumstances due to which attendance could not be uploaded, the District Programme Coordinator (DPC) has been authorised to approve the manual attendance,” the government said.

It clarified that all states and Union territories shall ensure the capturing of attendance for all the works (except individual beneficiary scheme/project) through the NMMS app from January 1, 2023.

However, civil society activists said the relaxation does not address the issue as getting the DPC to authorise manual attendance is in itself a tedious and problematic task and leading to work not being recorded and wages not being paid.

“There is a lot of evidence coming from the ground that workers are not able to get the attendance approved by DPC and instead a separate muster roll is being created,” said Apurva Gupta, researcher, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha.

The Morcha in a statement issued a few days back said that an unprecedented situation has been reached where many NREGA workers work without being paid because of technical problems related to NMMS or ABPS. This is grossly unjust, unacceptable, and illegal.

It said that since the introduction of the NMMS app, workers across the country have complained of multiple issues that do not allow them to fill their electronic muster rolls (eMRs) due to network issues, inscrutable error codes, and device problems.

“There are countless workers whose demand for work led to the issuance of eMRs but whose attendance was never filled. The NMMS app has undermined workers’ right to work as guaranteed under NREGA,” the Morcha said in the statement.