NEW DELHI, Aug 17: The Union Ministry of Rural Development has decided to press into service drones to monitor both the progresses made and the quality of assets produced by the projects under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
In a bid to increase its surveillance of worksites under the MGNREGA schemes, a standard operating procedure (SOP) was recently issued by the Ministry which directed that drones should be used for four types of monitoring: surveying the ongoing works, inspecting the completed works, impact assessment, and special inspection in case of complaints.
“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. Drones will be especially helpful in such cases for real-time monitoring and for garnering evidence,” a senior Ministry official said.
This will be the second big technological intervention introduced to keep a check on MGNREGA workers. From May 2022, the Union government made it mandatory to capture attendance at all worksites using a specially-developed mobile-based application.
The SOP stipulates that the drones will be used by the ombdusperson; according to the Act which governs the scheme, there should one ombudsperson per district who is responsible for registering suo motu complaints and disposing of them within 30 days. “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,” the SOP states. It has directed State governments to provide the facility to ombduspersons, as needed.
However, the Union government is not providing the States 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. Rather than purchasing drones, the Union government has directed States to hire agencies specialising in drones for this purpose.
The Ministry also proposes to form a centralised dashboard to store the videos and photos collected from the drones, for data analysis and reporting purposes.
(Manas Dasgupta)
