Better route planning need of the hour for Odisha's LAccMI buses

People of tribal Rayagada seek extension of bus routes to cover schools, hospitals and places of cultural significance Rayagada, Odisha: “We are not saying that this bus should cover every part of our panchayat. It should connect at least the prime locations where education and health facilities are available, so that maximum number of students and patients can make use of it,” says Ishar Majhi (35) of Ashargudi village in Odisha's Rayagada district. With a three-year (FY 2023-26) budget of Rs 3,178 crore, Location Accessible Multi-modal Initiative (LAccMI) aims at providing affordable bus services to the people of remote and rural areas, in a bid to strengthen rural connectivity across Odisha. This initiative comes a decade after the Biju Gaon Gadi Yojana, which had a similar mission.LAccMI was initially launched in Naxal-affected Malkangiri district, before it was extended to the rest 29 districts of the state. The three-tier scheme connects village panchayats to block panchayats (tier 1), block to district headquarters (tier 2), and district to state headquarters (tier 3). Additionally, under tier 3, AC super deluxe Volvo buses named Jagannath Express ply to Puri Jagannath Temple from district headquarters via Bhubaneswar.Virtually unveiled by former chief minister Naveen Patnaik on November 25 last year, LAccMI buses operate in 39 routes across 11 blocks of Rayagada, covering 300 bus stops and helping transport nine lakh people of the tribal-dominated region.LAccMI bus stop at the panchayat headquarters (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters)Five committees ensure smooth implementation of the project. The district Collector, in his position as the chairperson of district level committee (DLC), in coordination with the block level committee (BLC) headed by block development officer takes a final call on the routes where LAccMI buses would ply, its timings and frequency.The district administration selects a light commercial vehicle operator to run the service. At present, Gujarat-based Chartered Speed Private Limited operates LAccMI buses across the state. When the operator raises an invoice to BLC, it is forwarded to DLC within seven days of its receipt. The DLC then makes payment to the operator from the funds it received from Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC).LAccMI service is not available at Chiti Serama, Badahuma, LL Pur and Pangana Padar in Sana Huma village panchayat of Gudari block. “The scheme was launched urgently with a mission to grab the attention of rural voters, but it failed to make a mark. To reach the nearest LAccMI bus stop, one has to travel over 5 km,” claimed Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha local leader Anant Narayan Deo. He suggested that the bus route in Sana Huma panchayat should take the Pangana Padar-LL Pur-Chiti Serama-Badahuma route. On the lack of a proper route planning, Sana Huma panchayat’s former sarpanch and senior BJP leader Sambara Sabar said that routes can be planned better if sarpanches of village panchayats were part of the route finalisation process.  Odi Dhabaleswar, a social worker from Bahupadar in Padmapur block of Rayagada, claimed that service is stopped for many days when a bus is under repair. Though Chartered Speed carries out minor repairs locally, the spare parts of buses have to be moved to the state headquarters or to Chartered  Speed's maintenance division outside the state for some major repairs. As a result, sometimes, buses are not available for over a month.“The LAccMI service should run from Mardiguda Junction via Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya located at Bahupadar and Jatili to Padmapur, facilitating access to thousands of students,” said Majhi Venu Gopal Rao, a Congress leader from Padmapur. Padmapur has only one homoeopathic dispensary at Perupanga in Akhusingi panchayat, which is 5 km from the LAccMI bus stop.  The route from Khilamunda to Soura Singipur is the lifeline of tribal people as Akhyar Brahma Tirtha Khetra (Mattar Bannam Temple), a major cultural monument of tribal community, is at Marichaguda. The demand is to provide a bus route from Khilamunda junction to Perupanga and Soura Singipur via Marichaguda to Padmapur. “This way, the area’s rich culture can also be promoted," said researcher and poet Rupesh Kumar Sahu of Padmapur. Soumya Mishra, the OSRTC Rayagada District Manager dealing with LAccMI bus service, told 101Reporters that changing bus routes was a complex process and not within their direct control. “We have already communicated with OSRTC through BLCs to propose changes or extensions to the routes, based on public demand. OSRTC will discuss these suggestions with the bus operator,” the official explained.Asked about approving routes linking educational institutions and health centres, Mishra informed that some more routes will be discussed at the DLC meeting and the decision will be communicated to OSRTC.Better route planning needed for LAccMI buses (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters)At the same time, Mishra added, “It is impossible to run buses beyond the allotted kilometres in any area. We have a limited number of buses to cover all the important locations within panchayats. To reach all inaccessible locations, we require more buses.” Currently, Rayagada has 39 buses running in different routes and additional two buses on reserve. As many as 12 women self-help group (SHG) members are employed as LAccMI bus conductors. The block level federation, an SHG-centric organisation, provides manpower for Rayagada block. In other blocks, drivers and conductors are appointed by Perry Green, a third party service provider."Earlier, I had to struggle to feed my three-member family. Educating my two children was a big burden. Due to LAccMI, all that has changed. Now, I am able to manage the basic requirements of my family. Not only that, my dream of purchasing a scooty has come true," said one of the women SHG members employed by LAccMI service, wishing anonymity. A bus conductor under LAccMI earns Rs 14,500 per month.Women, students and physically challenged can take LAccMI buses for a flat price (irrespective of the distance travelled) for Rs 5 for block connectivity and Rs 10 for district connectivity buses. “Thanks to the LAccMI bus, I visited Lord Jagannath’s shrine. The fare was low and the bus was air conditioned. This is the first time I am boarding an AC bus. I can now visit Puri alone, without the family accompanying me, as Jagannath Express staff are very cooperative,” beamed Usharani Sahu (61) from Akhusingi panchayat.Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - People of tribal Rayagada seek extension of bus routes (Photo - AI-generated representative image/Canva)

MGNREGA workers in Rayagada caught between job card deletions, Aadhaar seeding

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE OR /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Kalinga; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE OR /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Kalinga; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Technical glitches can take away the right to work if one applies for a new card when part of the family job card, whereas names tend to disappear from muster rolls after Aadhaar linkingRayagada, Odisha: When Dhananjay Sahu (29) from Akhusingi village in Rayagada district started living separately after marriage, he decided to apply for a new job card under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. He wanted his wife also to benefit from the health insurance provided under the Nirman Shramik Kalyan Yojana, for which an MGNREGA job card is used as a primary identification tool. He also hoped to ensure 100 days of work for the new household by accessing the new card. No new card was issued to him, despite applying at Akhusingi gram panchayat last December. Much to his dismay, he later learnt that he had lost his MGNREGA identity. “Once I applied for the new card, my name was deleted from the job card of my parents. When I approached the officials concerned, they said re-entering a name along with the linked Aadhaar number was not possible once it was deleted from the website. In short, I lost my right to work under the MGNREGA,” Sahu, a plumber, told 101Reporters.MNREGA workers at the work location (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters)Sahu’s case is no exception. Job cards are flagged as duplicates in the MGNREGA website when family members apply for a new card. Once Aadhaar numbers and account details are linked to a family job card, the website does not allow access to a new card to any member of that family.   The problem stems from the Ministry of Rural Development's announcement in January, making the Aadhaar-based Payment System (ABPS) mandatory for all payments to the MGNREGA beneficiaries. Workers should link their Aadhaar numbers with their job cards and bank accounts to get payments through ABPS. The previous instruction was to link Aadhaar with active job card holders, but the new directive made it mandatory to link Aadhaar numbers of all job card holders. The deadline for implementing ABPS has been extended a fifth time — to December 31 from the last set time limit of August 31. In a bid to meet the deadline, the names of workers found in more than one database are being removed without much thought, leading to a sharp spike in such deletions.Responding to questions raised by Congress MPs Gaurav Gogoi and VK Sreekandan about the 244.3% hike in deletion of MGNREGA job cards in 2022-23 fiscal against the previous two financial years, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply on July 25 that over five crore job cards have been deleted in the last fiscal.Workers engaged in land development work (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters)The reasons mentioned for deletions were fake (incorrect) job card, duplicate card, unwillingness to work, permanent relocation of a family from a gram panchayat or cases where the only person listed in the card has passed away. For instance, in Rayagada district, there were 2,26,151 job card households in 2021. Over the last three years, 68,864 job cards have been nixed, reflecting a deletion rate of more than 30%. Similarly, in Padmapur block of Rayagada district, the number of job cards has come down to 8,230 at present from the 15,515 in 2021-22 fiscal.  The Aadhaar effectWhen Upendra Mandangi from Perupango village tried Aadhaar-job card-bank account linking, he got the message of successful linking. However, after a few days, his job card number was no longer visible on the website. When he attempted to register for manual work, his name was missing from the muster roll. “When I complained to the panchayat officials, they told me about an automated process on the website that caused the problem. They said it was beyond their control and they had no idea what was the reason for it,” he added.Ananda Dandasena from Akhusingi shared his bitter experience. “I applied for work, but did not get a notification. When I enquired with the supervisor (mate) on why my name was missing from the muster roll, he informed that my Aadhaar number had been automatically deleted (unfreeze) from the website.”Group of labourers gathered at the community tank (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters)Possible solutionsWithout any doubt, one can say that mass deletion has had an impact on many genuine workers as well. The MGNREGA job card serves as a key document of identification in rural areas. They are used for completing Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures at banks and post offices, while opening accounts. They also serve as the primary document for registering construction workers in labour offices, thereby providing them with insurance coverage.Akhusingi gram panchayat sarpanch Purnabasi Sabar told 101Reporters that when a family shifted to another panchayat, their data should ideally be transferred to their new panchayat. “This process involves deletion of job card data, including Aadhaar and bank account numbers, from the old panchayat. Although the MGNREGA website permits entry of new household names, errors are shown when attempting to link Aadhaar and account numbers to the new job cards in the new panchayat. So the new panchayat where the beneficiaries shifted are unable to issue new job cards,” he said.Once an Aadhaar card data is deleted from the MGNREGA website, it cannot be re-entered. According to the official sources at the Panchayati Raj Department in Rayagada district, it was earlier possible to unfreeze Aadhaar and account numbers of the deleted job card holders through the district  programme coordinator’s login. However, the Ministry of Rural Development removed this option last year.Utkal Sabar, a social worker from Sandhikhola village, said the Central government should provide gram panchayats the power to delete job cards, and the related Aadhaar numbers and account details. Such an approach would prove beneficial when people shift to another panchayat.Noting that job cards are issued on the basis of Below Poverty Line survey data, 2002, Prabhas Kumar Padhy, a youth leader from Akhusingi, told 101Reporters “it is high time we stopped issuing job cards based on such outdated data.”Anil Kumar Parida, a social worker from Bahupadar, said the Central government should issue job cards based on Aadhaar data and not BPL 2002 data. “This would ensure seamless card generation, where account numbers are already linked. Such an approach would enhance rural job security and livelihood,” he said.Social activist Saroj Kumar Dash of Gudiabandha alleged that the clear intention behind job card deletions and technical errors was to curtail MGNREGA work at the grassroots level.“During the scheme’s initial days, the focus was on maintaining a 60:40 ratio between labour and material components. Now with the deployment of technology and resulting glitches, job seekers are unable to secure even a single day of work,” Dash said.  Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Land fencing work done by the workers (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters)

Inclusion of Saora in 8th Schedule to brighten prospects of tribal kids, youth

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE HI /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Mangal; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The script is unpopular among tribal youth as the use of language is limited to family and communityGunupur: Odisha is known for its diverse tribal population and is home to 62 tribes, including 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups. Approximately 23% of its population speaks 21 tribal languages encompassing 74 dialects.In June, the Odisha Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recommended the proposal for the inclusion of the Saora, a tribal language, in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. “It will create an eco-system to facilitate research and studies anchored around preservation, promotion and propagation of the tribal language. Besides, activities such as publication, content creation and recognition will get momentum,” Scheduled Caste and Tribes Development Minister Jagannath Saraka told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.Political event after the proposal was presented (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters) New languages were added to the Eighth Schedule in 2004 also. Santhali, Maithili, Bodo, and Dogri were added to the list then.In the hilly tracts of southern Odisha, the Saora language holds prominence, with at least five lakh tribals speaking it, making it one of the most significant languages in the region, even as the younger population seems to be moving away from their traditional language. Laxman Sabar (29) of Dharapur village says the younger generation is unfamiliar with writing the tribal script. “Only about 30% can write the language fluently while all tribal people speak this language in their family and community,”“Saora is unpopular among tribal youth as the use of language is limited to family and community… after a child reaches primary education level, they start to forget their own tribal language,” says Prasad Sabar of Sandhikhola. According to Biswanath Sabar of Radhuguda village, the lack of use of language in the professional sphere is the reason for the reduced popularity of the local dialect. “The new generation does not speak the language… and it is of not much use in higher education or employment.”According to Falguni Sabar, a researcher from Gunpur, the lack of popularity also means that many tribal children drop out of school. “The tribal children only know their language. Once they go to schools, they are introduced to newer languages that they are not able to pick up… which is why they find it difficult to cope in school and drop out,” she says.The tribal community in the village (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters) Naba ghana Sabar of Jaitili village says the language is not used in any official capacity and youth are not interested in learning Saora. “The trend is to move away from it for languages like English and Hindi, which makes it less popular among the younger population,” Naba ghana says. “The only way this will change is if the language is propagated with the government and community help,” says Anusuya Gomango of Gulumunda Pakka village.There are efforts to launch textbooks in the Saora language in government schools. Sabar of Soura Rella village says the new efforts will help tribal children learn their language in school. Brundaban Sabar of Perupango village says dropout rates will decrease, which will help in reduction of tribal illiteracy. "Thus education will be easy for tribal children if every subject textbook will be published in their script. It will help in preservation and promotion of tribal culture," he adds. However, the fight for prominence is not new for the Saora language.A peek into historyThe Saora language belongs to the Austroasiatic language family and is primarily spoken by the Sora tribal community.“Sora is one of the oldest tribes in India and is also known by different names Savaras, Sabaras, Saura and Soura. Soras belong to a primitive tribal group and stay in parts of Rayagada, Gajapati and other parts of Odisha, numbering somewhere around 10 lakh. Spreading across Bundelkhand in the west to Odisha in the east, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, their population comes to about 3.10 lakh. But their major presence is in Odisha,” says a language researcher Akhyaya Sabar of Bahupadar village.“Saora is an ancient language that has been traditionally spoken by the Sora people for various purposes, including religious rituals, cultural events and personal communication. But the script for the language did not exist until the 1900s… The script is unique and distinct, with its own set of characters representing phonetic sounds. It is written from left to right,” he adds. Mangei Gomango of Marichaguda near Gunupur discovered the Sorang Sompeng script. The script has been passed down through generations within the Sora community, and its origins are deeply rooted in their cultural history. Sorang Sompeng has been recognised, studied and documented by researchers, scholars and community members who have worked to preserve and revitalise the script. Mangei Gomango who discovered the script (Photo sourced by Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters)“My grandfather was born on June 16, 1916… He started his career at the age of 16 as a school teacher in Khilamunda village… After a few days, he became a compounder at the office of the Cuttack chief medical officer in Odisha,” says Digasmin Gomango, grandson of Mangei Gomango. “This was his first time staying away from home, and since letters were slow and telephones were not that common, he could not communicate with the family as much… After some days at Cuttack, his father and uncle Malia Gomango visited him. On reaching the office where Mangei works, they were made fun of because of the way they spoke and their traditional tribal garments and jewellery,” he says“The incident shook him. He used to wonder why people made fun of his family and culture… while he was conducting his first postmortem examination, he realised that life has no value after death. Similarly, language has no value without a script… He felt that a script would bring back dignity to his language. With that in mind, he resigned from his job and returned home to uplift his tribe,” Digasmin adds.Malia Gomango had earlier studied the pronunciation of the Saora language. After his passing in 1935, Mangei Gomango continued his uncle’s research.“The script came to my grandfather during a 21-day meditation session on Idmatara Leyangbur hill located in Marichaguda village near Padmapur. He saw divine light during penance on the hills of Marichguda in a supernatural event and got the information about the appearance of Akshar Brahma. it is believed that he heard about 25 alphabets and nine numbers during meditation,” he adds.Inside view of Akshar Brahma (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters) “After the discovery of the pronunciation and alphabets of the script, Mangei visited several places in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh along with his first disciple Nilambar Sabar for preaching his language and script,” local BJD leader Kailash Kraska says.Edited by Tanya ShrivastavaCover photo - Saora Script invented by Mangei Gomango (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters)

From people’s scheme to tech quagmire: How digital ‘surgical strike’ hits MGNREGA workers

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE HI MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Kalinga; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Technical issues in connection with the use of NMMS app for attendance and Aadhaar-linked bank accounts for payments take away both man-days and wages from labourers   Rayagada, Odisha:  In a post-budget statement by the Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) and NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), activists and academics hit out against the low allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) this year. "Instead of adequately funding the programme, the Union government has repeatedly resorted to needless technical tinkering. The National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) application for capturing workers’ attendance, mandated in the current FY, is one such anti-worker intervention," they said. The latest digitisation efforts, ostensibly to weed out corruption and ensure fiscal transparency, have deviated from the primary objective of the scheme — to provide guaranteed 100 days of employment to adult members of rural households in every financial year.The procedure to get work under the MGNREGA itself is a bit complex. Those who want work should raise their demand with the gram panchayat, after which an acknowledgement form (C2) with details of the number of workers for a given work (from a pre-approved list of works) and the muster roll is generated. The MGNREGA mate has to take this muster roll to the worksite and record attendance on the NMMS application. Once the work is done, a Bare Foot Technician (BFT) or junior engineer will measure the progress of the work. Subsequently, the bill for the muster roll is approved and sent for payment.Work-snatcher NMMS appAfter a brief pilot phase, and even before any independent evaluation of its efficacy had been carried out, the Ministry of Rural Development made the use of NMMS compulsory for capturing workers’ attendance under the MGNREGA from January 1.During its pilot phase since May last year, individual works (in private lands of registered beneficiaries) like land development were excluded from digital attendance. Manual attendance was also allowed when the number of labourers was less than 20.All that has changed with the NMMS, in which two time-stamped and geotagged photographs of the workers should be uploaded on a given day. The first shows the worker during the 6 to 11 am schedule and the second during the 2 to 6 pm schedule.“Due to technical issues, the attendance taken in the morning does not get registered in the app. We are eligible for payment only if the attendance is captured in the app twice daily,” Majhi Sabar, a jobseeker from Akhusingi gram panchayat in Padmapur block in Odisha’s Rayagada district, told 101Reporters.“When real-time attendance is missed once, we turn out to be absentees after applying for that work. Consequently, a day of work is cut from the 100 man-days allotted in that financial year.”“At the end of the day, the labourers seem to have wasted a day without work or pay. You know, they cannot instantly go looking for some other work when they are already at the MGNREGA site,” said Kailash Majhi, a job seeker from Titiribandha village.If the work is carried out under the individual beneficiary scheme, the beneficiary himself should take workers’ attendance. However, there is no clarity on how this is possible as the NMMS app is only meant for mates. Even mates have issues when it comes to accessing NMMS. Some of them do not have the money to purchase mobile phones. So they end up using the devices of relatives/acquaintances to get the work done. This also is a violation of the guidelines.ABPS and non-linkingThe ministry has also made Aadhaar-based Payment System (ABPS) mandatory. In simple terms, it means linking both bank accounts and job cards with Aadhaar numbers, which is done at the block level. However, the problem arises when the MGNREGA website uses an automated process to identify and reject job seekers based on the Aadhaar linkage. Sometimes, it rejects those whose bank accounts are already seeded with Aadhaar! To make matters worse, the MGNREGA guidelines stipulate that any muster roll with even a single non-ABPS request is not eligible for payment. In fact, the system will not generate the wage list in such a circumstance.The Mate on the work site is supposed to record the attendance of the workers twice a day on the NMMS app (Photo - Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters) In the Management Information System (MIS) of the MGNREGA website, there is no special provision to identify those without Aadhaar-linked accounts. So, if such a labourer is allotted work in a muster roll for a few days, that person is set to lapse all those man-days from his/her 100-day quota. Also, once it becomes clear that this person’s bank account is not suitable for ABPS, no work will henceforth be provided to him/her.According to official sources, Aadhaar seeding was done a couple of years ago by organising mega Aadhaar camps. “The problem here is quite unique. The MGNREGA website itself identifies those with Aadhaar-linked accounts through an automated process. At times, it rejects even genuine cases.”Social worker and former chairperson of Padmapur block Kailash Kraska told 101Reporters that guidelines and technical errors were depriving people of their right to seek work and get wages. “Sometimes, during wage list generation, an error shows up which results in zero muster roll attendance,” he informed. Workers have no recourse in such cases and can't even approach the district's MGNREGA ombudsperson who only looks at human-induced irregularities. Setting limits on workExisting guidelines do not allow more than 20 ongoing projects in a gram panchayat at any given time, whether they are community or individual beneficiary-related works. This has a direct effect on asset creation in gram panchayats in light of the technical glitches. “If payment under any head is pending in connection with a work, it cannot be listed as complete in the MIS. When it stays in the system as a pending project, the prospect of adding new work gets affected due to the guideline related to the number of projects. It is a procedural pain to get a nod for more than 20 projects. The MGNREGA is no longer a people-oriented scheme, it is a technically suicidal programme. However, what people really need is work and on-time payment,” Akhusingi's naib sarpanch Devasis Mohapatra told 101Reporters.For preparing detailed project reports of MGNREGA works, a secure web-based application is used. “It takes over a month to get a project approved. Around 70% of the projects submitted are rejected due to a mismatch in wage-material ratio and other technical procedures. As a result, the works approved by gram sabhas taking into account the demands raised by people are put on the back burner,” said Chita Ranjan Sabar, a former samiti member of Gudia Bandha gram panchayat in Padmapur block.“The MGNREGA has narrowed down into a set of guidelines and procedures, where the wages and right to work are sacrificed,” he noted. Delayed paymentsInstead of learning from and building on the potential that MGNREGA demonstrated during the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, the government is determined to slowly kill the programme, says Rajendran Narayanan, Assistant Professor at the Azim Premji University. "NMMS is an unnecessary and irrelevant intervention that is being used to discourage worker participation. It doesn't address the root causes of corruption in the scheme like the use of machines to co-opt work, lack of adequate junior engineers to verify work done in the field and the defunding of social audit infrastructure at the local level," he observes. A situation that is bound to become worse with the reduced funding for the scheme. The budgeted allocation for MGNREGA has been reduced from Rs 73,000 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 60,000 crore in 2023-24 fiscal. In 2021-22 fiscal, the allocation was Rs 98,000 crore.Bidika Anusuya from Akhusingi Gram Panchayat worked under the MGNREGA for 14 days from December to February for a daily wage of Rs 221, but is yet to be paid due to lack of funds. Gudaria Sabar, a migrant labour from Soura Ambakhola village in Padmapur block, said he also did not get wages for the last four months due to non-availability of Central funds. “Life is difficult. I do not even have the money to pay off my debts to the shopkeeper,” said Gudaria, who along with a few other labourers have decided to migrate to other states in search of work.“There are guidelines regarding attendance and other things, but there are no provisions to penalise the Central government when lack of funds puts rural livelihoods in jeopardy,” said Akhusingi-based Congress leader Parsuram Panigrahy.All this ultimately is leading to lower demand and work days under MGNREGA. The MIS data for Padmapur block show the total expenditure during 2021-22 fiscal was Rs 9.56 crore, while the number of man-days was 4.44 lakh. In comparison, the expenditure for the current fiscal up to February 2023 was only Rs 4.67 crore against 2.10 lakh man-days, which is only around half of the previous year.Cover photo by Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, 101Reporters Edited by Rekha Pulinnoli