Geo-tagging of MGNREGA assets reach the one crore landmark

Under rural employment program (MGNREGA) Ministry of Rural Development achieved a milestone by successfully geotagging 1 crore assets. It started in 2006-07 and each year a huge number of rural assets are created under MGNREGA. All the assets created under the program will be geotagged.

Key Points:

• A MoU was signed on June 24, 2016 for geo tagging of assets under each village panchayats.
• Under this agreement, a Gram Rozgar Sahayak or junior engineer will take a photo of an asset created by beneficiaries of the scheme and through a mobile app created by ISRO upload the photo on the Bhuvan web portal run by ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre.
• When the photo is uploaded on the mobile app, the location and time will get encrypted and there will be an option to add more information according to a few parameters.
• Assets that are related to water works will get prime importance.
• According to the ministry of rural development around 3 million assets are created annually across the country under the rural jobs scheme.
• These assets include a range from plantations, rural infrastructure, water harvesting structures, flood control measures such as check dams.
• Ministry of Rural development tied up with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO and National Informatics Centre to geo tag MGNREGA assets.
• Training manuals were developed in consultation with NRSC.
• National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR) was enlisted for training more than 2.75 lakh personnel.
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), offers at least 100 days of manual work every year to one member of every rural household.
• Geotagging exercise started from September 1, 2016 after completing the training programme in the last week of August, 2016.
• The exercise will ultimately lead to more transparency and ultimately ensure accountability at ground level.
• To keep track of assets and create transparency under the rural job guarantee scheme, the ministry of rural development and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) signed an agreement on geo-tagging the assets.
• Huge amount of funds are now flowing through the 14th Finance Commission to gram panchayats, more and more quality assets will be added through MGNREGA in rural areas that will lead to poverty reduction.