Govt to use MNREGA network to promote cashless transactions in rural areas

NEW DELHI: To promote cashless transactions in rural areas, the Government will use MNREGA network to train and guide people, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar today said.

"I will request our officials that following the Prime Minister's advice of promoting cashless transactions we should use our MNREGA network to train and guide people in the rural areas about cashless transaction," Tomar said here at an event to announce geo-tagging of over 6.5 lakh assets created under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREG) scheme.

To check leakages and bring more transparency, government had initiated geo-tagging of all assets created under the rural employment programme, the Minister said.

Geo-tagging of assets will capture latitude and longitude of the asset. And for this, Rural Development Ministry has signed MoU with ISRO on June 24 this year, Secretary Rural Development, Amarjeet Sinha said.

Geo-tagged assets will not only ease identification and monitoring; it can also be implemented to perform additional developmental works on existing assets, he added.

Assets created under MGNREGA include works related to natural resource management that include water conservation, land development, irrigation, etc.

Meanwhile, the Minister said that in coming days the demand of funds for MNREGA will increase. Despite the highest ever allocation about Rs 44,000 crore to MNREGA this year, the schemes needs additional funds.