Opposition MLAs protest against the alleged MGNREGA scam outside the Assembly on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Bihar is all set to play a “pioneering” role in executing projects under the MGNREGA through e-shakti system and ensuring transparency in the scheme.

On Tuesday, rural development minister Nitish Mishra said: “Besides the transparency factor, the system is equipped to issue e-card to the workers and officials to register their presence. The computerised facility will ensure punctuality and also the geographical area where they are working. There will neither be a scope for impersonation nor of fiddling with the timetable.”

Mishra was replying to the budgetary demand of his department in the post-lunch session at the Assembly. “The e-power system is so far operative only in five blocks of Patna district encompassing 53,000 families. We are about to implement the hi-tech system in all the 38 districts by the end of this fiscal,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the opposition members were strongly critical of an alleged large-scale scam in the MGNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana in the state. They alleged that funds for the schemes were being misappropriated by officials in collusion with panchayat functionaries.