Ranchi, Oct. 28: The forthcoming state Assembly elections today cast a shadow on an important meeting on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

The meeting, held at the auditorium of the state rural development department, was attended by the district information officers (DIOs) and management information system (MIS) officers of only 11 districts out of 24.

“The purpose of the meeting was to ensure that the DIOs and MIS officers carry out data entry on a daily basis so that the updated reports give a clear picture about the status of MGNREGS implementation. But there was representation from only 11 districts,” MGNREGS commissioner Sunil Kumar Burnwal said. He blamed the poor attendance on preparations for elections. Burnwal added that though the election model code of conduct would not directly affect implementation of projects under MGNREGS, the pace of execution would definitely suffer.

MIS officers ensure timely entries of muster roll, progress of different schemes, status of issue of job cards, demand of job, work provided against job demand, issuance of pay slip, completion of schemes and due employment allowances among other.

The entries are supposed to be updated at the level of panchayat sevaks/gram sevaks but given the quality of serving officials at those levels, it is now being maintained at block headquarters. Moreover, there is lack of computer literacy and Internet connectivity in rural areas.