Government to take up exercise of geo-tagging on a mission mode under MNREGS

The government will now start geo-tagging to better monitor assets created under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). A memorandum of understanding was signed between the rural development ministry and ISRO, department of space.

In a recently held review meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked for online recording and monitoring of assets to check leakages and for effective mapping of terrain for future developmental works.

Government plans to take up the exercise of geo-tagging on a mission mode. A press statement issued by the rural development ministry said that around 30 lakh assets are created annually across the country under the rural job scheme.

The space technology is being used at the grassroots level for not just “visualisation of the assets” but also for mapping terrains to undertake other developmental works such as watershed and drought-proofing.

“Huge amount of funds are now flowing through the 14th Finance Commission to Gram Panchayats, more and more quality assets will be added through MGNREGA in rural areas which will lead to poverty reduction,” said J S Mathur, secretary, rural development ministry.

He also said that more than 7 crore labourers have their Aadhar numbers seeded with bank accounts and more than 95% workers are getting their wages directly into their bank accounts or post office accounts through direct benefit transfer.