MGREGS payment to go hi-tech in Rajasthan

NEW DELHI, INDIA: After the success of the pilot projects in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and in parts of Rajasthan, the Reserve Bank of India is looking to scale-up the pilot project of banking correspondent and deliver the entire payment of National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (now Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Gaurantee Scheme - MGREGS) through them.

“We are going to scale up the pilots of payment through bank correspondents of MGREGS. The bank correspondent have been appreciated by beneficiaries as they deliver service on doorstep. RBI is looking at scaling up the bank correspondent pilot and providing all MGREGS payment through them in Rajasthan,” said Dr Rita Sharma, secretary, Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development while speaking to CyberMedia on the sidelines of an event organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) on Wednesday.

The banking or business correspondent uses biometric smart cards and voice-guided systems to help people in the rural areas access banking services at their doorstep.

Bank correspondents or business correspondents have been playing important role in disseminating wages to the NREGP beneficiaries using ICT tools at their doorstep. The first pilot project for making payment of NREGP wages was run in Andhra Pradesh where a bank correspondent used mobile technology to access the data-base server and biometric tool for identification of beneficiaries.

After the pilot was successful, the project was scaled up in the last two years to cover more than 15 districts in Andhra Pradesh and including almost all the banks in their respective service area. Smart cards were issued to beneficiaries for both online and offline services.

According to RBI, the number of card accounts opened has already crossed five million. The success of AP project presented model to the State Governments for Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) of Government benefits directly to the beneficiaries utilizing business correspondents of banks.

On the time line for implementation of this system in entire Rajasthan, Rita Sharma replied that banks are asking for 2 per cent commission and discussions are on to get away with this commission. “It will be implemented after this 2 per cent issue is sorted out,” added Sharma.

Simultaneously she also pointed out that the Ministry of Rural Development will, in the coming days, have huge requirement for trained skilled personal for data entry jobs and called for private public partnership for training of youths who have completed 100 days of work under NREGP.

“There are 2.5 lakh panchayats across the country and the ministry requires same number of youth for data entry work at these panchayats. We are pushing for training of youth who have completed 100 days of work under NREGP through PPP model. Once all the panchayats are connected with broadband, we will absorb 2.5 lakh youth for data entry,” added Sharma.

The Ministry of IT and Communications has committed to connect all the 2.5 lakh panchayats with broadband in next three years.