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Drones to monitor MGNREGA worksites
Context
Recently, the Ministry of Rural development has released a standard operating procedure (SOP) to increase its surveillance of worksites under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
Background
- As, there are several complaints about corruption in MNREGS works that we receive regularly.
- These vary from machines being used in place of the workers, many receiving wages without doing work, or works beyond the approved list being undertaken, and so on.
- The idea to deploy drones will be especially helpful in such cases for real-time monitoring and for garnering evidence.
- Last time on May 2022, the Union government made it mandatory to capture attendance at all worksites using a specially-developed mobile-based application.
- These steps are taking MGNREAGA towards digitisation.
About the SOP:
-
- According to the draft, now the drones will be used for four types of monitoring:
- Surveying the on-going works,
- Inspecting the completed works,
- Impact assessment, and
- Special inspection in case of complaints.
- Administered by: The SOP stipulates that the drones will be used by the ombudsperson.
- According to the MGNREG Act which governs the scheme, there should one ombudsperson per district that is responsible for registering suo moto complaints and disposing of them within 30 days.
- Role of Ombudsperson:
- For efficient monitoring and redressal of grievances, it is decided by the Ministry that the ombudsperson may use drone technology facilities for verification of the works virtually.
- It has directed State governments to provide the facility to ombudspersons.
- Fund allocation:
- The States will not be provided with any extra funds to deploy these drones.
- According to the guidelines, State governments are expected to draw the necessary funds from the administrative head, which is roughly 10% of a State’s MGNREGA budget.
- Data management: The Ministry also proposes to form a centralized dashboard to store the videos and photos collected from the drones, for data analysis and reporting purposes.
What is e-governance?
- e-Governance can be defined as the application of information and communication technology (ICT) for providing government services, exchange of information, transactions, integration of previously existing services and information portals.
- Pillars of e-Governance:
- People
- Process
- Technology
- Resources
- Types of Interaction in e-Governance
- G2G i.e. Government to Government
- G2C i.e. Government to Citizen
- G2B i.e. Government to Business
- G2E i.e. Government to Employees
Need of Technological interventions in Governance:
- To promote Participative Democracy: Such Mechanism may help in strengthening Social audit. For example, citizens can directly give suggestions to the government on myGOV platform.
- Implementing Good Governance: Information Technology has ensured that a policy decision taken by the government can be quickly executed and implemented at multiple locations, across the length and breadth of the country.
- Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: Government has taken much of the e-governance initiatives for effective public service delivery. Also, when combined with emerging technologies, it can help in achieving sustainable development goals.
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