e-Shakti project gets going in Bihar

Patna: Biometric cards have been introduced in Bihar to check discrepancies in the process of attendance and wage payment to NREGA beneficiaries. The cards are being provided under e-shakti project.
Smarttech Technologies, a subsidiary of Glodyne Technoserve, has started distribution of the, e-shakti, chards in remote villages of the state, company’s director B K Mishra said.
The director said the distribution work started from Bhusaula Danapur area in Patna rural last week. The cards would be distributed among the beneficiaries of Phulwarisharif block for the next few days.
“We hope to provide 13.5 lakh e-shakti cards to the NAREGA beneficiaries, including those of Patna district, in the next six months,” he added.
The eshakti project’s data collection exercise would cover districts, which included Vaishali, Nalanda and Muzaffarpur.
The registration process for these cards is free of cost and any adult can get enrolled himself during the village wise registration/data collection exercise carried out by Smarttech officials.
As per the provision, individuals would use e-shakti cards with hand held machines for authentication, attendance and other transactions, using secure biometric technology.
Besides, a separate bank account would be opened for each cardholder to facilitate wage payment under NREGA-Bihar e-shakti cards, the director said.