Govt to give digital boost to MGNREG scheme

Government will roll out a pilot project to give a digital boost to the flagship rural job scheme MNREGA in gram panchayats to ensure its better implementation through mobile monitoring system.
Under the scheme expected to be functional from April this year, a total of 35,000 gram panchayats will be covered which would be given a mobile/tablet, Minister of State for Rural Development Sudarshan Bhagat said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
An amount of Rs 35 crore have been sanctioned as each mobile/tablet would be costing Rs 10,000.
"Government has started a mobile monitoring system (MMS) for better implementation and monitoring of MGNREGS works. The pilot project would cover 35,000 gram panchayats and is expected to be rolled out in April 2015. The amount allocated for the 35,000 mobile/tablets is Rs 35 crore," he said in the written reply.

The initiative is expected to give a boost to empowerment of gram panchayats and implementation agencies with live data from the worksites, an online and real-time updation of data base, real time visibility of the data for complete transparency and location of assets with geo-tagging for easy verification.
The minister said the states are in the process of identifying the panchayats for the pilot phase.
Ministry of Rural Development is meeting all costs of the pilot project, which includes the costs of hardware, software and training. The state governments have been requested to complete the procurement so that the project can be rolled out from April 2015.

If the the pilot project turns out to be a success, the scheme will be extended to all 2.65 lakh gram panchayats in the country, which will cost the Centre about Rs 265 crore, sources said separately.