Government Flags Loopholes in MNREGA Digital Attendance System

Speedy Summary

• The Union Rural Advancement Ministry identified misuse in the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS), introduced for MGNREGA worker attendance.
• Seven types of discrepancies were flagged in a 13-page note, including irrelevant photographs, photo-to-photo capture instead of live images, gender composition mismatches, duplicates on muster rolls, and non-uploading of afternoon photos.
• The ministry issued new instructions involving four layers of analog monitoring to address gaps:

– Verification at gram panchayat (100%) and progressively less random checks at block (20%), district (10%), and State levels (5%).
– Editing muster rolls for wage bills permitted before finalization.

• Noted criticism from experts includes lack of capacity to verify large volumes of images daily in certain regions such as Adivasi areas during peak work periods.

Indian Opinion Analysis

The shift toward enhanced manual verification underlines significant challenges with the NMMS system’s deployment under MGNREGA.While digital tools aim to reduce corruption and streamline processes, the reliance on extensive physical checks indicates systemic limitations in infrastructure or implementation fidelity-especially in rural or remote regions with high worker concentrations. This raises questions about labor efficiency versus administrative oversight goals. Strengthening technical resources and training may prove vital if India intends to successfully leverage digital systems like NMMS without undermining their core purpose.

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