The elected heads of panchayats (mukhiyas) in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district have written to Union rural development minister Giriraj Singh demanding the cancellation of the attendance system through mobile app in MGNREGS works.

A delegation of the Paschimi Singhbhum Zilla Mukhiya Sangh, led by its president Harin Tamsoy, met Union tribal affairs minister Arjun Munda on May 7 at Kharsawan in Jharkhand and submitted the letter addressed to the minister.

Munda represents the Khunti parliamentary constituency of Jharkhand.

“We have placed our demands before our local MP (Singhbhum parliamentary constituency) Geeta Koda on May 8 and also expressed our grievances before Arjun Munda and submitted the letter addressed to Union rural development minister through both of them on problems faced by villagers because of the Centre’s mandatory attendance system through the national mobile monitoring system (NMMS) app for MGNREGS workers in villages,” said Tamsoy.

There are 217 panchayats in West Singhbhum district.

“Because of the implementation of the NMMS, there is a lot of problem in recording the attendance of the workers. On many occasions, neither the attendance nor the photo is uploaded because of various technical problems and the non-availability of internet networks. Sometimes the mobile app does not even open. Despite working for 6 days in full, many times the labourers are not able to mark their complete attendance through the app. Because of this, many labourers are being deprived of their wages,” the letter states.

According to the letter, because of the compulsion of the Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS), many labourers are not getting their wages after working. If there is even one worker who does not have ABPS linked, the payment of total labourers in the muster roll is stopped. “Because of the difference in spelling of names in bank accounts, aadhaar and job cards of many labourers, there is a problem in getting their ABPS link. Also, there are many types of uncertainty in aadhaar payment such as money going to some other account, payment getting rejected etc,” the letter narrates.

The Sangh demands that the Union rural development ministry should cancel the recently implemented NMMS and ABPS in MGNREGS.

The Mukhiya Sangh also informs through the letter that in the last several years it is also being observed that after the end of the first 5-6 months of the year, the funds from the Centre stop several times — for several weeks — due to which the work stops. Although according to the MNREGA law, mainly the gram panchayats have to implement the programme, now most of the decisions and processes related to funds and implementation are not in the hands of the panchayats.

A fact-finding team of Jharkhand NREGA Watch — a network of organisations and individuals actively working on NREGA in Jharkhand — last month detected irregularities in MGNREGA works with misuse of the NMMS app at Sonua block in West Singhbhum district.