Employment guarantee goes hi-tech

Employment Guarantee Scheme Andhra Pradesh

It's a development which might give a new lease of life to the sagging National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (nregs). Tata Consultancy Services (tcs) has recently started a web-enabled aid for Andhra Pradesh's (ap's) employment guarantee scheme. The web aid has begun operations in 13 districts in the state.

According to S Ramadorai, tcs's ceo, "In the past most employment generation programmes were marred by corruption, non-payment of wages, and discrepancies in wage payment. The web-enabled aid will simplify activities like issue of job cards to rural households, maintenance of muster rolls and wage payment." By April end, more than 38 lakh households in ap had applied for jobs and all of them had got job cards unlike other states where there is huge gap. However, the Andhra government needs to quickly identify type of works that nregs will undertake. Without that the scheme will flounder -- web enabled solutions or not.