Drones to monitor MGNREGA worksites

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.

• 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.