TCS for use of IT in jobs scheme

Direct payment of wages to workers through postal money orders or to postal savings accounts, and the provision of bar-coded registration numbers for all job seekers at the district level will help plug leakages in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP).

Indian IT major, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), had offered to develop an IT platform for the government to bring in this system last year.

"On an average, leakages account for 30 per cent of the funds. It should be possible to plug about 25 per cent, by adopting IT enabled services," said officials in the Planning Commission.

TCS had prepared a conceptual framework on the issue at the behest of the finance ministry last year. However, the government has not made a move to use IT to help plug potential leakages in the programme.

While officials concede that it may not be possible to use the technology in all districts covered under the programme, a pilot programme could be initiated in a limited number of districts.

"In the absence of extensive use of information technology, it is difficult to reconcile progress of work with wages," TCS had said in a preliminary report to both the finance ministry and the Planning Commision.

The suggestion was based on the Maharashtra employment guarantee programme.

It had advocated registration of job seekers at the district level and unique registration number with photo ID, which would also help implement various schemes for medical insurance and pension funds.

This number would be bar coded, facilitating capture of weekly attendance records with the use of scanners at district computer centres. It had also said registered workers should be encouragd to open postal savings accounts and weekly payments, generated at the district computer centres, could be directly sent to the accounts.

Creation of websites on all schemes at the state level to provide greater transparency on expenditures and progress achieved was also proposed. Computerisation of data stores at the district level, which would allow for pre-approval audits through benchmarking with similar schemes elsewhere in India and CPWD guidelines, were also suggested.