Geotagging of Assets

MNREGA is an employment guarantee scheme however there are issues of corruption and leakage of funds during transfer. In order to tackle such leakage Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO for geotagging of the assets created under MGNREGA.

Geo-tagging of assets will ensure better monitoring, recording, and terrain mapping for future development works. This will also ease identification of assets created under MNREGA, such information can be utilized for creation of additional developmental works on existing assets like creating watershed and drought-proofing irrigation facilities through terrain mapping. Information about assets can be easily retrieved through attributes like Asset ID, location etc. All such information is updated real-time and stored centrally in NREGASoft. This can also be used to ensure which existing/older assets may require renovation. It will also ensure credible verification and effective dealing with the complaints of non-durability of such assets.

Role of ISRO, NRSC & NIC

NRSC will develop Geospatial solutions on Bhuvan Geoportal and it will also develop the mobile based geotagging applications for MNREGA. National Informatics Centre (NIC) will link ISRO-Bhuvan with “NREGA-Soft” interface which facilitates faster information exchange between various stakeholders. Data collection will be moderate through approved authorities to ensure the precise information for online visualization

Since a huge amount of fund is allocated for such asset creation more and more quality assets in rural areas will lead to poverty reduction. Thus the use of space technology at the grassroots level can be very helpful in poverty eradication & can ensure development and empowerment.