Question : Direct Benefit Transfer under MGNREGS

(a) whether in order to counter corruption in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) all types of payments to workers will be made through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) through banks and presently 94 percent of payments are being made directly to the beneficiaries accounts and the electronic fund management system has been made mandatory since April for its successful implementation;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons for non-resolution of the problem of delayed payments even after making direct payment into accounts of 94 percent people;

(c) whether the people not in possession of proper documents would be deprived of this scheme after implementation of DBT;

(d) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government in this regard; and

(e) the other steps taken/being taken for removal of corruption prevailing at other levels of MGNREGS?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI RAM KRIPAL YADAV)

(a)&(b): To streamline the fund flow mechanism and bring down delay in payment of wages, the Ministry of Rural Development has implemented National Electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) in 24 States and 1 Union Territory. This process reduces the delay in allocation of funds for payment of wages to the States and removes parking of funds at various levels. As per NREGASoft, around 99% of the wages are being paid electronically (FY 2018-19 as on 24.07.2018) into the Bank/Post Office accounts of MGNREGA workers through Electronic Fund Management System (eFMS). In FY 2013-14, only 37% of the wages were paid electronically.
The Ministry along with the States/UTs has been making concerted efforts for improving the timely payment of wages. States/ UTs have been advised to generate pay orders in time. This has resulted in considerable improvement in the status of timely generation of pay order and leading to improvement in actual time taken to credit wages in the workers account. During the current Financial Year 2018-19 (as on 23.07.2018), 92% pay orders have been generated within 15 days.

Following are the major reasons which cause delay in generation of pay orders:

1. Delay in filling of attendance sheet on account of delayed submission of filled in Muster Roll (MR) by the Gram Rozgar Sahayak (GRS) or non-entry of attendance by Data entry operator (DEO) within 2 days of closure of Muster Roll (MR).

2. Delay in measurement of work due to inadequate number of Technical Assistants/ barefoot technicians.

3. Delay on check measurement by Junior engineer/Assistant Engineer on the Measurement submitted by Technical Assistant (TA).

4. Delay in generation of wage list by Data entry operator (DEO) and authorisation by Additional Programme Officer (APO).

5. Delay in signing of FTOs by Signatories exceeding the T+8 timeline.

6. Lack of IT infrastructure at GP level

7. Inadequate Core Banking Solution (CBS) based banking facility.

8. Mismatch of wage seekers account information due to wrong entry of account particulars in NREGASoft.

(c)&(d): Every adult member of a registered household whose name appears in the job card are entitled to apply for unskilled manual work under the Scheme.

(e): The Ministry under MGNREGA receives complaints of irregularities from States/UTs. Since the responsibility of implementation of MGNREGA is vested with the State Governments, all complaints received in the Ministry are forwarded to the concerned State Governments for taking appropriate action including investigation, as per law.



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