More than 2 cr assets created under MGNREGA geotagged

New Delhi, Sept 15: More than two crore assets created under MGNREGA have been geotagged so far and intense monitoring and fixing accountability for delays in payments has shown significant result with around 85 per cent of the wages being paid to the workers in time, which is double the percentage in comparison with last financial year. Independent Social Audit Units have been set up in 24 states and 3,100 State Resource Persons trained to conduct social audit as per auditing standards, and large scale training of Self-Help Group women as Village Resource Persons for social audit is being undertaken, the Ministry of Rural Development said here today in an overview of the current stage of implementation of the scheme. It said adequate focus was also being laid on convergence of MGNREGS with other schemes. A good example of convergence is houses being constructed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). While 33 lakhs houses were constructed in 2016-17 with Rs 18,000 from MGNREGS as unskilled wage labour contribution to every house, the current financial year’s target is 51 lakh PMAY houses. Besides, MGNREGA provides Rs 12,000 for construction of household latrines in every PMAY house. These results have been possible because of the use of ICT tools, space technology, focus on improving livelihood resource base of people, provision of diversified livelihood opportunities through convergent programme implementation . The completed works have been geotagged and made available in public domain, improving and enhancing transparency in programme management. More than 2 crore assets have been geotagged so far. Now, the Ministry has made it mandatory to geotag three stages of an asset creation. UNI