Government unlikely to budge on NREGS attendance

The government is unlikely to roll back a mobile app-based mandatory attendance system for workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) despite ongoing protests. “The new system will continue. There is no plan to withdraw it,” a senior official from the rural development ministry told ET.

Capturing workers’ attendance through a mobile application, National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS), was made mandatory since January 1. It triggered protests by a section of NREGS workers and activists, who said workers were being deprived of wage payments due to technical issues with the new attendance system. The protests have been going on since early February.

But official sources said the move is aimed at curbing “fake” reporting of person-days and ensuring that only the intended beneficiaries gain from this scheme. They stressed that no state government has opposed the new attendance system and that workers don’t need to carry smart phones with the app to register their attendance.

“There is no additional burden on workers. Worksite supervisors are responsible for capturing attendance along with geo-tagged photographs of the workers through the NMMS app,” said the official quoted above.