Press Information Bureau

Union Minister of Rural Development, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Panchayati Raj and Food Processing Industries, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar today  launched National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) app and Area officer monitoring App in presence of Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State, Rural Development, Secretary, Rural Development and officials from the Ministry and all the State Governments on 21.5.2021 through Video-Conferencing. 

The NMMS App permits taking real time attendance of workers at Mahatma Gandhi NREGS worksites along with geotagged photograph, which will increase citizen oversight of the programme besides potentially enabling processing payments faster. Area Officer Monitoring App facilitates them to record their findings online along with time stamped and go-coordinate tagged photograph for all the schemes of Deptt of Rural Development- Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, PMAYG, PMGSY. This would also enable not only better record keeping of inspections by field and supervisory officials but also facilitate analysis of the findings for better programme implementation.

Hon’ble Union Minister lauded the efforts of the Ministry in bringing transparency and accountability to the execution of the Rural Development Programmes and stated that these two Apps will be big steps  towards bringing in  transparency and effective monitoring of schemes. He advised the Ministry to make the apps multilingual, provide sufficient training and equipment and allow time for its rollout.

The Union Minister underlined the importance of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA in providing alternative employment to the rural people, esp. during COVID-19 pandemic. He further highlighted the resolve of the Modi government to extend every possible support to the needy and informed that his government enhanced the outlay of MahatmaGandhi NREGS for the year 2020-21 from Rs. 61,500 crore to 1.11 lakh crore for ensuring all needy households get work under the Scheme as per their need.

He appreciated the efforts of the Ministry  in making 99% wage payment directly into the bank account of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers by way of DBT through NeFMS. This is a big step towards transparency and accountability.He further opined that the successful implementation of  Geo-MGNREGA  , a provision for geo-tagging of assets , through well-coordinated efforts of all the Governments, has helped in refuting the charge of ghost assets being financed through the Scheme. It has further helped in winning the trust of citizens about the programme.

He congratulated the field officials and volunteers like the GRS of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, Panchayat Secretary, and other field functionaries and SHGs, who have kept the flag of the Scheme flying high during difficult time. He further exhorted all the States/UTs to ensure adherence of COVID-19 protocol in their work and ensure working together with other wings of the Government for winning the battle against Covid and the attendant miseries.

On this occasion, Hon’ble Minister of State for Rural Development, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, highlighted the good works done under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA by providing employment to rural people during these difficult days in the COVID-19 pandemic.  She stressed on the importance of vaccination in protecting people against the disease and exhorted them to be proactive in attending to the needs of the people and raise the morale of people at this difficult time.

Secretary, Rural development, GoI, Shri Nagendra Nath Sinha emphasized strengthening of Social Audit, recruitment of Ombudsman, geotagging of assets and monitoring of works.

On this occasion, Additional Secretary, Rural Development Smt. Alka Upadhyay, Sh. Rohit Kumar , Joint Secretary (Rural Employment) , Joint Secretary (Skills), Shri Charanjit Singh and  JS & FA, Dr.(Mrs.) Suparna. S. Pachourywere also present.

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APS/MG