MGNREGS: Attendance through mobile app mandatory for workers; new move to stop pilferage

The NMMS App was rolled out by the Centre on 21 May, 2021 but at the request of states and Union Territories, the utilisation of the App had been kept voluntary so far though the states were asked to progressively start using the mobile application frequently In a big move to check transparency, the Centre has made it mandatory from May 16 that the attendance of workers under the MGNREGS be captured through a mobile application with time-stamped and geo-tagged photographs rather than the attendance marked in registers. From May 16, 2022, for all the worksite wherein muster rolls are issued for 20 or more beneficiaries, the attendance will be captured only through the National Mobile Monitoring System app,” the Centre had said in the letter written to state governments on May 13. The Centre said the App involves taking two time-stamped and geo-tagged photographs of the workers in a day “which increases citizen oversight of the programme besides potentially enabling processing of payments faster.” This is also expected to stop any bogus attendance of workers though fake entries in physical registers and ensure only genuine ones on the job get paid and the attendance is captured in real-time. The NMMS App was rolled out by the Centre on May 21, 2021 but at the request of states and Union Territories, the utilisation of the App had been kept voluntary so far though the states were asked to progressively start using the App frequently, the Centre’s letter says.