Management Information System (MIS)

MGNREGA MIS (MGNREGASoft)

Successful implementation of MGNREGA critically depends on the establishment and operationalization of a proper computer based Management Information System through an ICT network interconnecting all the Gram Panchayats, Blocks, Districts, States and the Union Ministry

• One of the main tenets of the Act is transparency and placing information in the public domain
• The Operational Guidelines and the Act laid down a detailed instructions and procedure for public disclosure.  There was a need for a comprehensive data base with internal checks for ensuring consistency and conformity to legal processes
• The architecture of software was thus designed to follow all the legal and statutory provisions with State consultation
• Trainings were imparted to State Officials for using MGNREGASoft. They were requested to fill up a data into the MGNREGA MIS designed by the Ministry that would reflect, inter alia, the status of the ICT infrastructure, personnel and connectivity upto the Block Level 
  

Introduction: MGNREGASoft

Taking forward the onus of crafting an efficient implementation of the NREGS, the MGNREGAsoft captures the information right from the registration of the worker. It includes separate pages for approximately 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats, 6458 Blocks, 615 Districts and 34 States & UTs.

A transaction level work flow based web enabled MIS has been developed for National Rural Employment guarantee act (MGNREGA) and hosted at MGNREGA portal http://nrega.nic.in. The portal provides single point access to all stake holders of MGNREGA. This makes data transparent and available in public domain to be equally accessed by all.

It provides linkages with the household survey known as BPL survey 2002 which captured information about each person and family in the rural area and provide unique id to them. So, rather than starting from scratch, the software is built on household survey

1. Worker Management Module of the software captures Registration, demand for work, work allocation and Muster rolls on which a person worked, the software has the provision of payment of wages through bank/post office as it captures the bank/post office account number , bank/post office name, branch name for a ll the person who demanded job and their account number are shown in muster toll against their name and calculate unemployment allowance, if any and also keep tracks of number of days of employment of a family
2. Fund Management Module captures the funds transferred from MoRD/States to Districts and then to Programme officers/Panchayats and expenditure incurred by various implementing agencies on labour, material and contingency. Hence it keeps track of each and every paisa spent under the scheme
3. Works Management Module captures information about the various works under taken under the scheme at various level (GP, BP, ZP).It facilitates online approval of projects and keeps track of time taken for approval of project. Each project is provided a unique ID and status of work is maintained in the system
4. Grievance redressal system allows a worker/Citizen to lodge complaint and trace the subsequent response
5. Staffing Position module captures name, telephone numbers etc. of all the officials, planning and implementing agencies from Gram Panchayat to  Ministry of Rural Development involved in MGNREGA, thus strengthening communication and co-ordination among them
6. Cost Estimation Module makes detailed estimation for the works taken up under MGNREGA e.g. construction of Tank, Well, Sluice Gate, Earthen road, Cement concrete road etc. This module calculate quantity of work to be done and calculate the per unit rate as per Schedule of Rates (SOR) for each sub activity of a work.  This further helps engineers to fill the Measurement book and calculate wage per day for a particular muster roll 
   
7. Knowledge network/ Solution exchange  provides a common platform to all stakeholders to exchange their views, pose queries to other stakeholder/Experts  and get responses, exhibit their best practices 
   
8. Alerts: The software also gives alerts to implementing agencies about the various irregularities, important activities, and messages for funds to be received by the agencies

Technology to meet the challenges

• MGNREGAsoft is available in online as well as in offline mode and hence overcome the barrier of connectivity
• It is Unicode enabled and support all local language so overcome the language barrier
• Software is available in Microsoft technologies as well as open source technologies

Features of the software that makes it possible to run at GP level:

• Local language support
• Available in online as well as offline mode. Both versions work in a synchronous mode.
• Minimum requirement and support to technologies

Offline version is available on Microsoft technologies as well as on open source technologies.

Online version is available in Microsoft technologies but can be accessed from any browser (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Mozilla).

• Very near to actual processes on ground of MGNREGA
• Inbuilt checks to take care of bogus entries

Benefits availed through MGNREGASoft:

• Computerisation of all MGNREGA activities
• All information available for public access
• Accuracy ensured in payment of wages to workers
• Lodging of complaints through Grievance Redressal System

• Assists Gram Panchayats in MGNREGA Implementation
• Tracking of 100 days of employment to a household
• Generates documents as per MGNREGA guidelines
• Tracking of funds from the Ministry to the worker
• Provides status of available funds in accounts of Panchayats/ Blocks/ Districts
• Provides details of unfulfilled demand, works which can be taken up and the unemployment allowance

Assists Programme Officers and Administrators

• Locations with no registration,   no   demand for work, no allocation of work, no work in shelf, no on-going work etc
• Funds transferred availability of funds at each level and expenditure on work
• Generates Monthly Progress Report (MPR) at Gram Panchayat / Block/ District and State level

New MIS Modules Envisaged

After successful implementation of the Online Labour Budget software Ministry is soon going to make and use following new modules:

Financial Proposals to be received & processed through MIS

Financial management system (FMS) which will be a DSS to decide the fund requirement of a district depending upon the online labour budget submitted, Progress made and the norms set by MoRD. Provisions for Online transfer of funds to the States in their respective accounts