Chief minister Nitish Kumar to open NREGA call centre on Oct 14

Bihar is set to become probably the first state in India to have a call centre for entertaining queries regarding National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) schemes and complaints regarding denial of benefits under the Act.

The Act guarantees 100 days of assured employment to people willing to work in the countryside.

Once operational, the call centre can be approached on the toll-free number, 1800-345-22-44. "The call centre would become operational from October 14 when chief minister Nitish Kumar would dedicate it to public," rural development department principal secretary Vijay Prakash told.

The call centre is being set up by the same agency which has been roped in by the state government for making biometric cards for NREGA beneficiaries under its ambitious e-Shakti project.

Prakash said anyone willing to get general information like making of a job card, work, wages etc could make a call to the call centre. Complaints pertaining to the problems facing the NREGA beneficiaries would also be received and forwarded to the official concerned for quick action.

"The complainant would be given a complaint number using which s/he can seek information about the follow-up action," Prakash said.

With the ultimate goal being providing biometric cards to all the NREGA beneficiaries, the call centre would be equipped with more features once these cards are distributed among the beneficiaries.

"In the next phase, the call centre could also be used by those looking for jobs under NREGA and the caller would have to give details of the job card number to get information about the jobs available under ongoing NREGA schemes," Prakash said.

Incidentally, details of six lakh NREGA beneficiaries have already been collected which would be used for making the biometric cards. "We expect to deliver the cards to many of these beneficiaries by next month," Prakash said.

He said efforts are also being made to ensure wage payment through these biometric cards. The new system entails payment to NREGA beneficiaries at the work site itself. The payment would be made by `bank correspondents' after verifying the beneficiary's biometric card. link