Bhubaneswar, July 5: A pilot project was launched in Mayurbhanj district which will help in motoring implementation of Mahatam Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Indira Awas Yojana.

Under this pilot project, which will be executed in 100 gram panchayats of Mayurbhanj district, gram rozgar sevaks employed under the job scheme at the gram panchayat level, will be provided with smartphones. They will take photographs of projects under execution and send these to the state panchayati raj department. The projects will be evaluated there.

The location of the project can be found out through global positioning system. Officials of the panchayati raj department said if any discrepancy was found in the implementation of both the schemes, the officials concerned would be punished.

“This will ensure transparency in implementation of the schemes,” said state’s panchayati Raj minister Arun Kumar Sahoo.

Odisha government was under fire with the Supreme Court ordering a CBI probe in 2011 into the alleged irregularities in implementation of rural job scheme in five districts of the state.

A survey conducted by a New Delhi-based voluntary organisation, Centre for Environment and Food Security, between May and June 2007, revealed that in 100 villages of undivided Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi, there were irregularities in the implementation of the central scheme. Out of the 100 villages surveyed, there was not a single case where entries in the job cards were correct.