Satish Manjhi, a MNREGA worker, is thrilled with the easy manner in which he now gets his wages.
Now Manjhi, who belongs to lali panchayat of Namkum block, can feel the winds of change blowing across the MNREGA circuit of Jharkhand. Through the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System the payment to MNREGA beneficiaries have been facilitated through post office accounts in association with India Post.
The payment is through a device right at the beneficiary's doorstep. The new project was launched on October 2, 2013,All these years he had been listening to tales as to how difficult it had been to get the wages. Incidentally, Manjhi has been telling stories as to how MNREGA workers used to commit suicide due to delay and non-payment of wages.
The NREGA workers who chose not to pay cuts and commissions to secure their payments found themselves in soup.
Dilun Munda has a similar story to tell. He used to go the block office every second day asking for payments. "When you do not get paid for the work already completed, one feels like setting oneself on fire", said Munda, a MNREGA worker.
However, the administration is now getting into the act. Using technology, Chief Secretary RS Sharma has initiated plans to use computer devices and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System and link them with the post offices in rural areas of the State to build a robust and quick payment system for MNREGA workers and others.
The plan, known as India Post Project was being executed under the supervision of the Information Technology Principal Secretary NN Sinha. It ensures that not only funds are transferred to beneficiaries almost instantaneously but also that they draw it at will.
The focus is on the India Post to make it have a sound and credible system of payment authentication, real time accounting of transactions and a sound system of predicting the cash needs of its branch post offices. Given the mutually beneficial relationship, the State Government through JAPIT and India Post have decided to roll out the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System in all the rural post offices in Jharkhand.
But most of the rural post offices are not computerised and they complete process manually. Head Post Office and Sub Post Offices are computerised but they are not linked to each other.
Thus, the State Government has initiated the India Post project. "If all goes well and the stakeholders involved in executing the plan work efficiently, the people will benefit and corruption can be contained effectively", says Chief Secretary Sharma.
The system has also been successfully inaugurated in Tetri, Chipra, Garu, Kumharia panchayats till date and is in the process of being implemented in other places. Currently, five out of eight devices which have been provided to India Post are operational in the field.