The Direct Benefit Transfer of wages to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) workers launched at lali Panchayat of Namkum on October 2 has failed to overcome initial hiccup. The ambitious scheme, even after a fortnight of its launch by Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, is yet to get infrastructure support necessary to ensure transfer of wages to a beneficiary’s account biometrically.
Interestingly, Chief Minister Hemant Soren while inaugurating the scheme had raised the issue of poor connectivity in the area and promised to address the issue through consultations with other stake holders — BSNl and India Post. However, the panchayat is still waiting for the CM to fulfil his promise. “Plan is to erect one mobile tower at panchayat building to provide better connectivity to handheld device but no official ever contacted us in this regard,” said Amravati Devi, mukhiya of lali panchayat adding, “the only problem with the scheme is poor connectivity which makes transfer time consuming process.”
Although payment to labourers is yet to gain momentum, poor network has made the mukhiya worried about the success of the Central Government scheme launched with much fanfare. “Unless connectivity improves it would be premature to judge success of the scheme,” added Devi.
The scheme aims to facilitate direct transfer of wages to MNREGA workers, having Aadhaar number seeded with bank account or Post Office account through a handheld device. Notably, there are as many as 5,960 MNREGA workers in lali panchayat with around 3,391 Aadhaar enrolments. The MNREGA labourers would get wages directly transferred to their account initially and subsequently will be given the service at their doorstep through micro ATMs.
The India Post — another stakeholder — rued poor network not only in the pilot panchayat but in other parts of the State also to be the single biggest hurdle in effective implementation of the scheme. The India Post would transfer wages to beneficiaries account after verifying their credentials through internet. “All we can do is request the Union Minister to ensure better connectivity at all post offices not just lali. We need better connectivity to verify details from UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) server,” said Chief Postmaster General, Jharkhand Postal Circle AbhayShekhar Prasad.
Incidentally, the Information Technology department has been given the deadline of January 1, 2014 to put the infrastructure in place besides completing procurement of around 2800 micro ATMs before the date so that the scheme can be implemented across the State.
“Procurement of handheld devices is more important so we are making effort in this direction besides ensuring that the required software is also developed by the end of this year,” said Principal Secretary IT, N N Sinha. The central government envisages DBT for MNREGA workers in as many as 4,200 panchayats from January 1, 2014.