'Smart cards' to all NREGP beneficiaries: Minister

Hyderabad, May 28 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Rural Development Minister G Chinna Reddy today said Smart cards would be provided to all beneficiaries of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) to avoid misuse of funds during distribution of wages under the employment scheme.

Addressing the press here, Mr Reddy said the government had already launched a pilot project in three villages of Warangal district where 'bank outposts' were set up with the assistance of the banks.

The government would install ATM in all villages where the NREGP was being implemented after getting positive results, he said.

Stating that ATM would also be utilised for other state government-sponsored welfare programmes like pension distribution and social security schemes, he said the government had received complaints from the beneficiaries that they were not getting wages from the post offices promptly in some villages.

The new 'smart card' facility would help 33 lakh labourers employed under the NREGP, to get their wages in a transparent manner, Mr Reddy added.

Alleging that the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government had misused the funds allocated for Food For Work (FFW) programme, he said three Mandal Parishad Development Officers (MPDOs), 27 Technical Assistants and 167 Field Assistants were suspended from service for misusing NREGP funds and a sum of Rs 3.9 lakh was recovered from them.

Announcing that the government would spend Rs 2,400 crore under NREGP in 19 districts during 2007-08, the Minister said the Rural Development department would take up 'social audit' in 959 mandals and 19,000 villages in 2007.

UNI