THE HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE D.KRISHNAKUMAR and THE HON’BLE TMT.JUSTICE L.VICTORIA GOWRI W.P.(MD)No.28058 of 2022 Manikandan                          .. Petitioner / Party -in-person. Before parting with the order, considering the serious irregularities committed under MGNREGS Scheme, the respondents shall give suitable instructions to the authorities concerned for strict enforcement of the implementation of the Scheme and in the interest of justice, this Court is inclined to pass the following directions:

BEFORE THE MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT

RESERVED ON: 01.03.2023

DELIVERED ON: 13.04.2023

CORAM:

THE HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE D.KRISHNAKUMAR

and

THE HON’BLE TMT.JUSTICE L.VICTORIA GOWRI

W.P.(MD)No.28058 of 2022

Manikandan                          .. Petitioner / Party -in-person

Vs.

1.The District Collector,    Office of District Collector,    Tenkasi District.

2.The Block Development Officer,

Panchayat Union Office,    Vasudevanallur,    Tenkasi District.

3.The Secretary,

Rural and Developing Department,

Fort St.George, Chennai-600 009.                          ..        Respondents

(R3 suo motu impleaded vide order dated

14.12.2022)

Prayer: Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for a Writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to take immediate action on the petitioner’s representation dated 10.10.2022 and to pass such further orders.

For Petitioner	:	Mr.R.Manikandan, Party-in-Person
For Respondents	:	Mr.P.Thilak Kumar Government Pleader

ORDER D.KRISHNAKUMAR, J.

This writ petition styled as a Public Interest Litigation is filed for a mandamus directing the respondents to take immediate action on the petitioner’s representation dated 10.10.2022.

2. The petitioner, who is a party-in-person, in the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition has stated that the Central Government has introduced Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 for the purpose of enhancing the livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment for the adult members to maintain their financial status and for their development. As per the said scheme, 100 days works are carried out in the petitioner’s village i.e., Vasudevanallur Panchayat Union.
3. According to the petitioner, one Subbulakshmi, who is workingas a supervisor is operating the said scheme in the petitioner’s village and the maximum tenure of the said site supervisor is 3 months and whereas she is holding her post as site supervisor for the past 7 months with the influence of the Panchayat Union member one Murugalakshmi. The petitioner would further aver that the said Murugalakshmi’s father one Ramachandran has leased a vacant land for the purpose of doing agricultural works and in order to carry on the agricultural operations in the Ramachandran’s land, the site supervisor Subbulakshmi and Panchayat Member Murugalakshmi had colluded to make the workers of the 100 days scheme to work in the said land.    When the petitioner made a surprise visit on 10.10.2022, to his shock and surprise, noticed that all the people of 100 days scheme were engaged in the agricultural operations in Ramachandran’s land.  In this regard, the petitioner has made a representation to the respondents on 10.10.2022 and since no response is forthcoming and therefore, he has filed the present writ petition styled as a Public Interest Litigation.
4. Heard the petitioner / party-in-person, Mr.P.Thilak Kumar,learned Government Pleader and also perused the materials on record.
5. The main contention of the petitioner/party-in-person is that MGNREGS scheme has been totally misused by the respondents by engaging the persons employed under the Scheme in private agricultural lands and the works are not carried out as per the allotment maintained in the Register. The petitioner/party-in-person further contended that serious irregularities and malpractices were committed in the implementation of the MGNREGS Scheme and huge amount of public money has been wasted in very possible ways by making the workers engaged under the Scheme to work in various landlords agricultural lands and therefore, he seek for taking necessary action against the officials of the respondents department.
6. When the matter came up before this Court on 14.12.2022, this Court, considering the seriousness involved in the matter, suo motu impleaded the Secretary, Rural Development Department as respondent for effective adjudication and also directed the respondents to file relevant Government Orders along with status report and counter

affidavits.

7. The first respondent, namely the District Collector, Tenkasi District has filed a counter affidavit dated 02.01.2023 denying the averments made by the petitioner and contend that due to previous political rivalry, the petitioner has made unwanted allegations against Subbulakshmi and Murugalakshmi. It is further stated in the counter affidavit that in pursuant to the implementation of MGNREGS Scheme, in Irukaraiyankulam Supply Channel in Dharugapuram Panchayat, manual labour was being carried out in the supply channel which is running in the irrigation channel of the Sirukulam Kanmoi and run through S.Nos.166, 167, 161, 160, 159 and 156 of the Dharugapuram Village, Sivagiri Taluk, Tenkasi District from 01.09.2022 and the land in S.No.162/1 adjacent to the said channel is leased by one Ramachandran.
8. It is further stated in the counter affidavit that on 10.10.2022 about 78 manual labourers were employed, out of which 8 persons were working in the spot disputed by the petitioner and immediately on receipt of the oral complaint from the petitioner, the Block Development Officer has directed the Overseer to inspect the site and on inspection, the said overseer one Muthumari found no misconduct and submitted a report dated 10.10.2022. It is further stated that as far as Vasudevanallur Block is concerned, during the year 2022-23, a total of 307 works worth Rs.1382.05 Lakhs have been taken up for the benefit of job seekers and the scheme is closely monitored by good number of field staffs and hierarchy of officials and the said Scheme is run and monitored through NREGA soft and mobile applications such as e-NMR, Geo-Tagging, eAttendance through NMMS App, e-payment by FTO and all modern

updates and further in order to make the implementation of the scheme, it has been decided that from January 2023, every detail has to be uploaded digitally in the online mode including the photo.   It is further stated in the counter affidavit that the second respondent has submitted a detailed report dated 15.12.2022 to the Project Director and thereafter, the Project Director has also submitted a detailed report after personal inspection on

16.12.2022 to the Commissioner of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, Chennai and the said reports had enquired into all the details of the petitioner’s contentions and found the same to be false and misleading and therefore, prayed for dismissal of the writ petition.

• The newly suo motu impleaded third respondent has filed a detailed status report dated 02.01.2023 about the salient features of the Scheme, types of works carried out, selection of beneficiaries, implementation of works, verification process as to the transparency in work execution, monitoring mechanism and accountability, auditing mechanism etc. It is relevant to incorporate the same:

  Salient   Features     of     the    Scheme     ar  e      as follows:

• MGNREGS ‘work week’ starts from every Thursday and ends on next Wednesday.
• In order to provide more employment opportunities to

MGNREGS workers, the habitations in a Village Panchayat are grouped into clusters in such a way that more number of works are taken up in all the clusters.

• The wages for unskilled labourer has been fixed

based on the Rural Schedule of Rates (RSoR). As per the revised Schedule-I of MGNREG Act, the Schedule of Rate for wages of unskilled labourer is so fixed that an adult unskilled labourer working for eight hours which includes an hour of rest (i.e.,7 hours of effective work) will earn wages equal to wage rate.

• The G.(Ms) No. 52 RD & PR (CGS-1) Department

Dated: 25.06.2012 for Special Rural Schedule of Rates (RSoR) for differently-abled was issued and adopted. The Government Order provides either special activities for the differently-abled workers or special provisions for undertaking earthwork related activities.

• No contractors or labour displacing machineries are However, machineries are permitted to be used in executing some of the works.
• Every individual worker in a household above 18 years is entitled to a job card so that they can apply and receive work.
• The demand can be registered at the Gram Panchayat office, Block office, during the Rozgar Diwas as well as at the works The Gram Panchayat or the Programme Officer, as the case may be, shall be bound to accept valid applications for work.
• From 2017-18, e-MR has been adopted in 12,524 Village Panchayats.
• The notified wage rate for the year 2022-23 is Rs.28lper day w.e.f 01.04.2022 for both men and women without any difference.
• The MGNREGS worker can earn full wage rate, if the out turn is 37 Cu.ft. as per G.O.(Ms).N25, RD & PR (CGS-1) Dept., dated 27.2.2014.
• Facilities such as drinking water, First-Aid kit, shade etc., are provided in all the work sites.
• Disbursement of wages is done through National electronic Fund Management System (Ne-FMS) from 11.2016.

Types of works are as follows:

Community                Works: Under Mahatma Gandhi

NREGA various types of works  are taken up for individual and community development. Community works like Creation of new Ponds. Channel MI Tank, Supply Channel,

Plantation activities (Massive Tree Plantation(MTP) / Avenue Tree Plantation (ATP)), Construction of Check dam, Culvert, Dug well for Community), Soakpit for community, Cement concrete Drainage, Compound wall, Causeway and Construction of Anganwadi Centre, Panchayat office Building, Food grain Godown, Milk collection centre, Kitchen Shed and Rural connectivity works like WBM Road, Cement concrete Road, Paver

Block etc., are taken up to improve rural infrastructure.

As a measure of Transparency and Accountability

Good Governance Initiatives (GGI) suggested by the

Government of India like Installation of Citizen Information Board depicting 11 types of information of the work is installed in all work sites. Work files are also maintained for all works with 21 type of documents beginning with Grama Sabha resolution and ending with work completion certificate.

  Individual     Works To enhance the livelihood of rural poor Government of India has been insisting to take up more individual asset creation works for vulnerable section. Accordingly, individual beneficiary- oriented works like farm pond, Land Development Activities, Land leveling, Stone Bunding, Earthen Bunding, Plantation of fruit bearing Trees in individual lands, NADEP Compost Pit, Onion Shed, Azolla Cultivation Unit, Horticulture Plantation, Dug well, Individual House Hold Soakpit, Cattle goat, Poultry Shelter etc., are taken up. Likewise, Agriculture & Allied works are also taken up in large scale. Detailed Instructions in this regard have been issued to all collectors vide Director of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Lr. No. 29886/2017 MGNREGS-I-1 Dated 22.11.2019.

Implementation of works:

• The Labour Budget for MGNREGS is being prepared through a “bottom up” approach by each Village Panchayat (VP) which will be duly approved by the respective Grama Cluster-wise analysis is being under taken for the preparation of Labour Budget. The Labour Budget is finalized, prioritized and approved in the Grama Sabha and for this purpose special Grama Sabhas are conducted during October to November of every year.
• The Administrative Sanction (AS) for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee

Scheme (MGNREGS) work is given by District Collector cum District Programme Coordinator based on Shelf of Projects prepared and prioritized by Village Panchayats during the Grama Sabha meetings which is the custodian of Shelf of Projects. All workers shall have the right to participate in the Grama Sabha and decide the Shelf of works with the order of priority to be taken up under MGNREGS in their Village Panchayat.

• Under MGNREGS, the Administrative Sanction and

Technical Sanction for all the works are given through SECURE (Software for Estimate Calculation Using Rural rates    for Employment)       a web-based application developed with effect from 01.04.2019.

  The Transparency in work   e  xecution    is verified as follows:

• The selection of works under this scheme are made only by the Grama Sabha resolution. Work execution will be done on priority basis after categorizing them into individual work, NRM work, Agri and allied work, Rural Infrastructure works etc.,

After finalizing the work, Administrative Sanction and Technical Sanction will be accorded through SECURE software only.

• Each work will be geotagged in J stages viz.,
• Before commencement of work,
• During execution of work and (iii) After completion of work.
• Progress of each work will be monitored at

Village panchayat level by Panchayat Secretary, and at

Block level by Union Overseer, Assistant Engineer, Zonal Dy. Block Development Officer and Block

Development Officer (Annual Master Circular 202122 – Page 148,149)

And at District level by Assistant Project Officer, Assistant Executive Engineer, Executive Engineer,

Project         Director and District Collector (Annual

Master Circular 2021-22 – Page 150)

And at State Level by Superintending Engineer, Chief Engineer, Additional Director of Rural Development and Commissioner of Rural Development and at Government level by the Principal Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.

• Thus, monitoring at various level are done to ensure quality and quantity of all works.

  For ensuring    further transparency in   implementation    & Payments, the followi  ng      have   been ensured  :

• Demand for work and e-muster roll for MG REGS workers are generated through online mode only.
• After generating e-MR, attendances of workers are uploaded through National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) app by taking their photographs at two times during morning and afternoon except individual works.
• After completion of each working week on every

Wednesday their attendance (e-MR) has been sent to Block office for measurement of work done, generation of wage list and signing of FTO by 2 signatories viz., Dy.BDO (MGNREGS)/FT0-1 and Block Development Officer (V.Pt)/FT0-2 through Digital Signature Certificate (DSC).

• This Stage-I Process will be completed within 8 days of completion of each working week.
• After this process, digitally signed FTOs will be sent to Bank, NIC and PFMS for further processing as II- Stage of wage
• After this process the weekly wage payment of the workers will be directly credited into the bank account of the workers by the Government of India. Aadhar Number and bank account details of all workers are seeded in NREGA Soft which is a online portal of MGNREGS developed and maintained by Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.
• Hence Major portion of the workers wage payment are made through Aadhar Based Payment System (ABPS) and only Minorportion is made through Bank account of the workers.
• Any rejection of FTOs for payment will be reprocessed within 48 hours of rejection by addressing actual reason for
• As far as our State of Tamil Nadu is concerned the 100% payment to Mahatma Gandhi NREGS workers are made within the prescribed time limit of 15 days.
• As narrated above from the stage of Demand generation and up to the stage of crediting wage payment of the workers are made through online mode only.

  Transparency  in Monitoring and Accountability     are    ensured   as   follows:

• Commencement and Completion of works are monitored by Geo tagging of all assets.
• Qualities of works are ensured by Block, District and

State level Officers. Apart from this State Quality Monitor (SQM) and National Quality Monitor (NQM) are also monitoring regularly.

• Citizen Information Board is displayed in all work sites with relevant 11 details of work in that site.
• Works File is maintained for all works with copies of 21 Document
• From the stage of demand generation and up to crediting of wages into workers Bank account are done through online mode only.
• Rozgar Diwas (Grievance Redressal Meeting) is conducted regularly on alternate Tuesdays to make the communities aware about this scheme and its implementation.
• Ombudspersons are appointed in each District for Redressal of Grievance of the
• Social Audit is being conducted by the workers of the
• Overall progress of the scheme is viewable in public portal NREGASoft created by Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.
• CPGRAMS- Portal is provided under this scheme for complaints of any kind under this scheme.

10. It is stated by the third respondent in the Status Report that no work was carried out in any private land under the Scheme and the said sanctioned work and the work carried out was in a water channel with a small width. Furthermore, the officials have verified the writ petitioner’s complaint by getting statement from the concerned persons who were employed in the sanctioned work.  The status report also states about the following developmental works in the private lands and sanction of such land development activities are as follows:
11. a) Farm Ponds in Individual Lands:As per section 27(1) of NREGA Act which envisages activities taking on the up of land development lands of SCs and Sts Households, Small and Marginal Farm In order to give thrust to agriculture and to bring the fallow lands into cultivable lands, it was felt imperative to extend the MGNREGA activities to individual land holdings.

Likewise, in order to improve the Green Cover it is essential to take up afforestation activities in Government common lands at in the lands belonging to individual farmers.

Therefore, the Tamil Nadu Governance in its order

(G.O.ms.No.61, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (CGS-1) Department dated 23.07.2012) approved the guidelines for taking up of land development activities in the private agricultural lands of individual households.

Thereafter considering the request of the farmers in the Districts of Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Trichy, Ariyalur, Karur, Pudhukottai and Cuddalore as well as other districts which were noted as drought hit areas, the special guidelines were drawn up for the provision of farm ponds on lands of individual farmers.

The 8 delta districts were encouraged to take more farm ponds in excess of the target, by selecting beneficiaries from all the Village Panchayats. The target for construction of such Farm Ponds has been arrived based on the number of farmers and priority (SC / ST, Small and Marginal Farmers).

1. Earthen Bunding for agricultural fields in individual lands: The Government permitted execution of Earthen Bunding Agricultural fields on individual lands in order to arrest soil erosion and improved the soil moisture profile and thereby improving agricultural
2. Construction of Individual Dug wells in private lands: Dug wells are open wells constructed either in individual farmers land or in community lands.

• Apart from being an irrigation facility, primarily they will also serve as a source for drinking water.

1. d) Stone Bunding activity under land development activity in private land:

• Stone Bunding activity was permitted under land development activity in the hilly and slope areas as a measure for local resilience to the climate change and conservation of soil from er
• Stone Bund increases production while preserving and improving soil quality. Measurement of the crop yields have shown an increase of 40% to 70% in their agricultural production.

1. e) Construction of Soak Pit in Individual households:

• Effective management of grey water in rural areas at household level is very much n Therefore, the grey water generated at household level should be managed at the source so that zero or minimum community waste is generated in rural areas.
• As per restructured list of permissible works communicated by Government of India (GoI), 21 construction of soak pits for individual land and community land are one among the permissible works.

1. f) NADEP Compost Pits in individual households:

• Vermi-Composting is a method of providing bio-fertilizers and the same was effectively taken up for individual beneficiaries.
• NADEP (Narayan Deotao Pandharipande) Compost Pits for individual households is also taken up to convert the degradable household and agricultural waste and generate into bio-compost effectively and thereby benefit the farmers and their productivity.

1. g) Azolla Cultivation in farmers land:

• The cultivation of Azolla is one another permitted activity in MGNREGS as per the reconstructed list of permissible works issued by GOI.
• Azolla which is an organic cattle feed is rich in proteins, amino acids, vitamins, growth promoter intermediaries and minerals. It also enhances quality and quantity (up to 1520%) of m
• The Azolla tank will be constructed in the beneficiaries’ own land.
• The beneficiary should be a member of the women Self Help Group.
• Furthermore, the Hon’ble Minister for Rural Development has made announcements for taking up of works under MGNREGS on the floor of the Tamil Nadu Legislative

Assembly on 07.04.2022 during the Demand of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department and the target fixed for some priority wor s on the land of the individuals to be taken up under MGNREGS are mentioned below:

SI. No.	Name of the Work	Total Target (Nos. / km)
1.	Individual Soak Pit and Community	2,00,500
	Soak Pit
2.	Farm Ponds	5,000
3.	Stone Bunding	500 km
4.	Earthen Bunding	500 km
5.	Horticulture Plantation in the lands of farmers	7760

Further there is also a list of 66 diverse works which are identified as land development activities that could be taken up in the agricultural land of individuals and the target is fixed as on date to about

100 individual farmers in a block. Therefore about 38,500 individual farmers would likely be benefited in a year.

11. This Court, during the course of arguments, has also directed the Government to clarify if the GPS (Global Positioning System) way of monitoring the workers could be deployed at the work sites of MGNREGS. In pursuant to the same, the first respondent has sent a communication dated 24.02.2023 stating as follows:
    • The Government of India through the Ministry of Rural Development in their letter dated 13.05.2022 communicated to all states its decision to discontinue the manual attendance and introduce mandatory attendance through NMMS App. With a view to ensure more transparency in the implementation of MGNREGS in the states, a provision for capturing of attendance at work site through NMMS Mobile App with two time stamped and geo tagged photographs of the workers in a day morning and evening has been implemented.
    • Each work will be geo-tagged with 3 stages viz.,
      • before commencement of work,
      • during execution of work and (c) after completion of work.

And will be uploaded in BHUVAN-MGNREGA PORTAL as per guidelines.

• Hierarchy of officials are lined up for the inspection and super checks of MGNREGS works to verify the attendance and then the execution of works. The wholesome inspection of MGNREGS works are done by Union Overseers, Assistant Engineers, Assistant Executive

Engineers, Executive Engineers, Zonal Deputy BDOs, Block

Development Officers, Assistant Project Officers, Project

Directors and District Collectors and are reviewed by the Government periodically.

• MGNREGS with its huge numbers of beneficiaries involving huge amount as wages, has to buckle up with all feasible gadgets and apps. The modern techniques are inducted into the scheme are ‘geo-tagging’, ‘online entries’, customized apps like “BHUVAN app’, ‘NMMS app’, ‘AOM App’ and ‘TNRD Work Inspection App’ for close and real time monitoring.
• GPS is an expensive technology and the gadgets are not user friendly by now and to providing 92,63,427 beneficiaries with GPS gadgets would not be viable.

12. In compliance of the earlier directions issued by this Court, the Commissioner of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, vide communication dated 28.02.2023 has filed an Undertaking Affidavit regarding the implementation of MGNREGS in Tamil Nadu, giving

suitable instructions to all the District Collectors in the State to follow the instructions regarding NMMS Application for the implementation of MGNREGS and any failure to implement such instructions, action will be initiated against the erring officials concerned.   The undertaking report given by the Commissioner, Rural Development and Panchayat

Raj Department is extracted hereunder:

• The Government of India, Ministry of Rural Development has issued instructions regarding National

Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) Application vide

Director (MGNREGS), GoI, MoRD, Department of Rural Development (MGNREGA Division) File

No.J11062/2/2021-RE VI (374151) dated 30.12.2021. The above GoI circular has been communicated and instructed to follow the same without deviation, vide letter 58478/2020/MGNREGS II-1 dated 07.01.2022.

• GoI, MoRD in the letter J-11060/2/2021/-RE VI (374151) dated 23.12.2022 has further stated that to discontinue the manual attendance w.e.f 01.05.2022 to all the worksite wherein muster rolls issued for 20 or more beneficiaries and this provision has come into force from 16^th May 2022 and also ensuring capturing of attendance for all the workers through National Mobile Monitoring System from 01.01.2023. The copy of the GoI letter was also communicated vide office letter 8352/2015/MGNREGS 2-1 dated 26.12.2022 to all

District Collector to follow.

• As the Direction of Hon’ble Division Bench of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, Madurai on 27.02.2023, circular was issued again to all districts to strictly follow the instructions given in GoI letter J11060/2/2021-RE-VI(374151) dated 13.05.2022 regarding the implementation of NMMS Application vide office letter No.Lr.No.8352/2015/MGNREGS II-I dated 28.02.2023. Instructions were also issued that any slackness found regarding the implementation of NMMS application of MGNREGS, severe action will be taken on the erring officials.”

13. Thus, in compliance of the earlier directions of this Court, specific instructions were already given by the Commissioner, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department to all the districts concerned vide communication dated 28.02.2023 with regard to usage and strict implementation of National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) and on failure to implement such instructions, to initiate

necessary strict action against the erring officials.

14. We, accepting the said Undertaking Report, endeavour to direct the authorities concerned to strictly comply with the aforesaid instructions without any deviation, failing which appropriate action shall be taken against erring officials in case of malpractices, misuse and deviation of the guidelines / instructions issued by the Central Government as well as the State Government.
15. It is very unfortunate to point out that this Court come across various instances where irregularities have been committed in the implementation of such welfare schemes and serious allegations are raised against erring officials for allotment of works under MGNREGS Scheme. Hence, periodical verification shall be done by the District Collectors concerned for strict implementation of the aforesaid guidelines/instructions of the Commissioner of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj and to ensure that the concerned Panchayats shall strictly adhere to the guidelines issued by the Government of India. It is needless to state that the first respondent/District Collector shall conduct periodical inspection at the Panchayats concerned and ensure that the villagers are aware of the benefits of the said scheme by making necessary publicity in the notice Board of the Panchayat Office concerned.
16. Over the last 5 years, MGNREGS has become the main force that is driving water conservation efforts all across rural India. Approximately 60% of the funds allocated are spent on National Resource Management (NMR). The NMR works are focused on ensuring higher incomes to farmers by improving both the area under cultivation and yield of crops. This is done by improving the productivity of land and increasing the water availability.   The major works taken up under NRM include check dam, ponds, renovation of traditional water bodies, land development, embankment, field bunds, field channels, plantations, contour trenches etc.   (As per data reported in MGNREGS website).
17. Before parting with the order, considering the serious irregularities committed under MGNREGS Scheme, the respondents shall give suitable instructions to the authorities concerned for strict enforcement of the implementation of the Scheme and in the interest of justice, this Court is inclined to pass the following directions:
    • The first respondent / District Collector shall conduct detailed enquiry into the complaint / representation of the petitioner dated 10.10.2022 in accordance with law within a period of twelve weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and shall initiate appropriate action, if there is any irregularity or illegality found in the allotment of works under MGNREG Scheme. It is made clear that sufficient opportunity shall also be afforded to the writ petitioner.
    • The District Collectors in the respective districts shall ensure that the Instructions / guidelines issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Rural Development, dated 13.05.2022 regarding the implementation of National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) application vide letter dated 28.02.2023 issued by the first respondent shall be strictly enforced in all the Village Panchayats concerned.
    • Uploading of e-MR attendance of workers through National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) App by taking photographs shall be strictly implemented.
    • The District Collectors shall ensure that wage payments are made through Aadhar Based Payment System (ABPS) for the workers engaged in MGNREGS Scheme.
    • Periodical Inspections shall be conducted by the District Collectors concerned or the officers nominated by the District Collectors so as to enable that MGNREG Scheme has been implemented in proper perspective without any deviation and if any deviation is noted, appropriate action shall be taken against the erring officials.
    • The District Collectors concerned shall also ensure that Village Panchayats make necessary arrangements so as to enable the villagers/public aware of the benefits of MGNREGS Scheme by giving due publicity or by publication of the details/benefits of the Scheme, either in the Notice Board of the Village Panchayats concerned or in a conspicuous place in the villages, so as to enable the beneficiaries to aware about the details of the Scheme.
    • Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for our rural public. Before innovation of ponds, lakes, water bodies, there was availability of water only during rainy season for agriculture and other essential needs.  After innovation of water bodies under the Scheme, for the entire year there is availability of water.  Trees also contribute to their environment over long periods of time by providing oxygen, improving air quality, climate amelioration, conserving water, preserving soil and supporting wildlife. Therefore, Panchayats concerned shall give priority for tree sapling plantation works under the Scheme and also utilize the services of manpower engaged under the Scheme for deepening of wells, water bodies, lakes, ponds etc., in the Villages.
    • The third respondent shall ensure that overall progress of the scheme is viewable in public portal “NREGAsoft” created by Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India and ensure transparency in monitoring and accountability in the implementation of MGNREG Scheme.
    • The District Collectors concerned shall make necessary arrangements for creation of a separate wing to monitor the scheme and to deal with the complaints relating to MGNREGS Scheme by deputing officers not below the rank of District Revenue Officer.
    • The third respondent is also directed to give suitable instructions to all the District Collectors concerned to strictly comply with the aforesaid directions issued by this Court within a period of twelve weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.

The Writ Petition stands disposed of with the above directions.  No costs.

[D.K.K., J.,]   [L.V.G., J.]

13.04.2023            

Index:yes/no

Internet:yes

Jvm

To

1.The District Collector,    Office of District Collector,    Tenkasi District.

D.KRISHNAKUMAR, J.,

&

L.VICTORIA GOWRI, J.

Jvm

2.The Block Development Officer,

Panchayat Union Office,

Vasudevanallur, Tenkasi District.

3.The Secretary,

Rural and Developing Department,     Fort St.George, Chennai-600 009.

Order in

W.P.(MD)No.28058 of 2022

13.04.2023