Dibrugarh deputy commissioner Ashutosh Agnihotri inaugurates the project. A Telegraph picture

Sept. 25: High-accountability, the buzzword of corporate work culture, will soon make its way into the rural health workers’ parlance in Dibrugarh thanks to a new software that will help keep track of their “progress”.

The method is, in fact, similar to the one used in most urban offices.

Each accredited social health activist in district will be given an identity card and a “unique code”.

All data related to a particular “code” will be loaded onto a server with the help of the software designed by the National Informatics Centre.

Every day, the field workers will have to report their progress to a district officer, who, in turn, will relay the information to the official handling the software.

The data then will be updated on the software.

So next time, a National Rural Health Mission official sitting at a central district office wishes to monitor a health activist’s progress report, all he has to do is check out his “operations” online.

This “path-breaking” scheme, named Project Paln, was inaugurated by deputy commissioner Ashutosh Agnihotri, who is also the chairman of the district health society, at Tengakhat block primary health centre on September 12.

“This project is basically designed for better implementation and online monitoring of various programmes like Janani Suraksha Yojana and free referral transport facility during emergency,” Monisha Borgohain, the district planning manager, said.

The officials distributed 200 “goody bags” during inaugural ceremony — each bag containing Janani Suraksha Yojana coupons, free referral transport, a medicated mosquito net, a soft toy and a handbook on ante-natal care, institutional delivery and immunisation.

“The main aim of the project is to reduce infant mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio by providing quality service and facilities to the rural people,” district joint director of health services, Promud Chandra Hazarika, said.

“We are proud that our people in the district have worked hard for this innovation,” Agnihotri said.

The deputy commissioner lauded P. Ashok Babu, the former additional deputy commissioner (health), for mooting the project.

At the end of the formal programme, Pramod Nath from the National Informatics Centre, explained to officials how the software operates.