eGovernance projects: Jharkhand faces loopholes

JHARKHAND, INDIA: While the Central Government and almost every state government of India is taking various e-governance initiatives for better governance, eGovernance projects in Jharkhand have been encountering problems.

As per a report in Times of India, Monitoring the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme has been the most challenging project under e-governance in the state of Jharkhand. The maintenance of MIS data of the MGNREGA scheme has reportedly not been on the correct track.

"It was not failure of e-governance but misuse of the platform. The idea is noble to keep things transparent but end-users have learnt tricks to manipulate with figure as a result of which false figures are being uploaded creating confusion," a Times of India report quoted Balram, an MGNREGA activist and Supreme Court-appointed advisor for monitoring erstwhile National Food for Work programme, as saying.

Issues related to linking MGNREGA payments and subsidy distribution to Aadhaar have also come to light in the state.

The scheme to link MGNREGA payments and Aadhaar in four districts of Jharkhand (on a pilot basis) is facing problems due to delay in mapping of bank accounts and MGNREGA job cards besides Public Distribution System (PDS) cards. The subsidy was to be transferred against PDS cards.