Benefit Disbursement System
Disbursement of wages under MGNREGS has been a major concern for both state and central governments. Previously payments of entitlements were being under taken by Branch Post Offices (BOs) located in villages manually. Payments were delayed inordinately and payment of entitlements to the right and appropriate beneficiaries was not assured. Government of Andhra Pradesh has been interested in creating alternative framework and methodology using ICT for disbursement of entitlements to beneficiaries. APOnline Ltd took the initiative; designed, developed and implemented framework for disbursement of entitlements. APOnline Ltd provided necessary software and hardware technology infrastructure for disbursement of entitlements in rural areas channeled by Department of Posts (DoP). Commissioner Rural Development (CRD) provides funds for disbursement and monitors the overall implementation of the project. Tata Consultancy Services implemented ICT solution for MGNREGS in Andhra Pradesh for effective program implementation and monitoring. Government of Andhra Pradesh felt that in the whole program implementation, anomalies have been more frequent and hence disbursement through a structured mechanism is very much necessary. As an extension and forward linkage, APOnline developed ICT solution for MGNREGS, a framework involving DoP for disbursement of entitlements after accurate authentication of the entitlements through finger print authentication. This ICT system framework is meant for wage seekers who are enrolled under MGNREGS and Social Security pensioners The project has been implemented in Nizamabad and Nalgonda districts of Andhra Pradesh and currently it is being implemented in Chittoor district.
What we deliver
• Handheld devices and client level software which runs on the device are provided by the APOnline. • Server side software and sever hardware is also developed and maintained by the APOnline • Besides, handholding field support is provided by APOnline • Software provided is also maintained by APOnline.
Whom we deliver
Department of Rural Development, Andhra Pradesh and Department of Posts, Andhra Pradesh are using this software. State administration, district administration, Mandal administration are getting benefitted by the software. Branch Post Offices in the rural areas are directly using the system for disbursing the MGNREGS wages and pensions. All wage seekers under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and pensioners are the direct beneficiaries of the software.
Why is the project unique?
The project is one of its kinds, first introduced in India using network of post offices and advanced technologies for rural development programs. MGNREGS has been in use for last five years and many state governments are trying to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for monitoring and tracking of the program. Andhra Pradesh has implemented ICT system for MGNREGS and as a part of forward integration and weed out all the anomalies this solution has been evolved for wage disbursement to workers. It is in many ways an innovative project for the following reasons: • Wider post office network is used to disburse entitlements • Based on the job cards data all wage seekers finger prints and photos have been taken and stored in the server • In order to avoid matching and recognition problems, 8 finger prints data of wage seekers taken • Entitlements are disbursed only on finger print data match with original enrolled bio-metric data. • HHD devices have been procured and distributed to all branch post masters • Software developed and deployed on all handheld devices • Post Masters and other stakeholders have been trained on the software and operation of HHDs • Pay order information electronically sent to Sub-Post Office • Provision is created to download wage seekers information and pay orders in Sub-Post Office • Post master downloads wage seekers data and pay order information from central server through GPRS connectivity and collects money from Sub-Post Office • Wage seekers visit the Branch Post Office • Post Master authenticates beneficiary’s finger prints with bio-metric data stored in the HHD • Due entitlements are paid directly to wage seekers • If workers are interested in saving, they can retain the money in their postal savings accounts. • Payment data is uploaded to central server through GPRS connectivity From the point of view of implementation of rural development schemes, the whole process is a novel idea. Besides, it has done away with middlemen and banking correspondents for distribution of entitlements. Post office network is more reliable and definitely contribute to program implementation and in turn it also gets strengthened.
Roadmap
The WWW community should now focus on developing technologies that can provide useful information to the masses on mobile platform using the latest 3G and 4G technologies. The world community is looking for a mobile device that can provide integrated solutions of 3G or 4G applications to people in their mother tongues. ” By APJ Abdul Kalam There has been urban rural divide in developing countries. All technologies spread very fast in urban areas and rural areas are largely neglected. Companies want to realize their investments quickly and it is possible in urban areas. Since the geographically wider rural areas and less density of population make it difficult or need longer time to realize their investments. But mobile technology took little time to spread to rural areas. It needs lesser investment to pread to mobile network in rural areas. Rural areas in India can bypass investing in cable networks and directly go to mobile networks. Mobile technologies are already playing a very important role in reaching rural areas. The spread of mobiles increased in the last decade and it tends to expand further. With the 3G and 4G applications are enabling all people to make it to use mobile technologies for acquiring information and carrying transactions like bill payments to money transfers. New applications and content development in regional and local languages will definitely help in integrating people from rural areas to use these applications more easily. Available mobile applications • Already applications related money transfer and mobile payments • Application related to GPS • Mobile searching and browsing applications through Google, Yahoo etc • Mobile health monitoring • Reading news through mobiles • Listening to music • Instant messaging • Creation of mobile communities • Mobile gaming • Mobile advertising All the above applications are used more frequently in urban areas and spreading to rural areas also. There are many functional areas of government and corporates which can be digitized using mobile applications. All rural payments, government subsidy, loan information, repayments information, incentive payments, rural works attendance and verification rural works progress, grievances, opinion collection, social audits can be digitized using mobile applications. Implementing above application and services, all people are covered and integrated with the urban society.
Contact
Col. S.S. Rao
APOnline Ltd.
Kohinoor Park, Plot No. 1, Jubilee gardens, Cyberabad
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
500081
URL/Website – APOnline.gov.in
