To ensure more transparency in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) in the States/UTs, a provision for capturing of attendance at worksite through National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) App with geo- tagged time stamped photographs of the worker in a day has been started on 21^st  May 2021, wherein muster rolls are issued for 20 or more workers. This increases citizen oversight of the scheme besides potentially enabling faster processing of payments.

Mates are encouraged to take the responsibility of capturing the attendance of the workers through the NMMS App. The Ministry has been providing training to the States/UTs to ensure smooth transitioning to NMMS app as and when requested by the States/UTs. The technical issues being faced are taken up with NIC, Rural Development on real time basis. The new provisions/ suggestions requested by the States/UTs are being incorporated. All the issues concerning the NMMS application are reviewed and resolved from time to time. Some important decisions taken as per request of State Governments are given below:

1. NMMS application has been modified to capture second photograph just after the 4 hours from the uploading of attendance and first photograph. It has ease out the specific time point requirement for capturing the attendance and photographs. The morning attendance along with the first photograph can be captured in offline mode and to be uploaded once device comes in network.
2. In case of exceptional circumstances due to which attendance could not be uploaded, the District Programme Coordinator (DPC) has been authorised to upload the manual attendance.

As per the information shared by the Ministry of Communications that Broadband/Internet services are provided in a phased manner by the Government and Telecom Services Provider (TSPs) in the uncovered villages of the country. The Government, with funding from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), has schemes namely Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for North Eastern Region, Left Wing Extremism (LWE) Affected Area Schemes, Aspirational Districts Schemes, Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for Islands, etc. to extend Broadband/Internet services through setting up of towers in the uncovered villages of the country.

Bharat Net project is implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country. The infrastructure created under Bharat Net project can be utilized by Service providers, for provisioning of broadband/internet services.

There is a widespread availability of smart phones in the rural areas. As per Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2021 of ASER Centre, which reported that 67.7% surveyed rural households have at least one smart phone. Similar data has been reported by other agencies. Thus, it is not a major bottleneck.

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Rural Development, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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