 bill no 83 of  2016 the  geotag-enabled  monitoring  of  public  works  bill,  2016 by shri  baijayant  panda, mp a billto provide for better accountability in public works undertaken by the central government through regular publication of geotagged and time-and-date-stamped photographs of the progress being achieved in such worksbe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—short title and commencement1 (1) this act may be called the geotag-enabled monitoring of public works act, 20165(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by a notificationin the official gazette, appoint2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—definitions(a) "central government body" means a central government body, organisation or establishment, by whatever name called, that engages in relevant public works;(b) "geotagging" means the process of adding geographical information, usually in the form of latitude and longitude coordinates, to a photograph;(c) "public work" include civil works and irrigation, navigation, embankment and drainage works, whether undertaken for creation of new assets or for the improvement or maintenance of the existing assets;5 10(d) "relevant public works" means public works having a budget of rupees ten lakh or more undertaken by any central government body, either directly, that is to say, when the work is carried out by the central government body, or indirectly, that is to say, when arrangements are made where an entity carries out the works on behalf of the central government body, like awarding a contract for public works to a private entity; and(e) "time-and-date-stamping" means the process of adding information about when a photograph was taken on a photographic device, in the form of time and date, to the photograph153 (1) every central government body shall, by the seventh day of every month, or by the next working day, if the seventh day is not a working day, procure geotagged and time-and-date-stamped photographs of relevant public works and transmit such photographs to the union ministry of statistics and programme implementation(2) the photographs referred to in sub-section (1) shall—20every central government body to procure and transmit geotagged and time-and-datestamped photographs(a) clearly communicate the progress or lack of progress made in the relevant public work in the last month or lack of progress thereof, as the case may be; and(b) cover all major components of the relevant public work(3) the photographs referred to in sub-section (1) need not be procured and transmitted after the central government body certifies the completion of the relevant public work254 (1) where releasing geotagged and time-and-date-stamped photographs of a public work may have adverse implications on national security, such public work shall be so certified by the central government(2) nothing in this act shall apply to public works certified by the central government under sub-section (1)act not to apply on projects having a bearing on national security305 (1) the union ministry of statistics and programme implementation shall, by the fifteenth day of every month, or by the next working day if the fifteenth day is not a working day, upload the photographs transmitted under section 3 by central government bodies, on an especially created website, which shall be freely accessible to the public35uploading geotagged and time-and-datestamped photographs by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation(2) the union ministry of statistics and programme implementation shall cause areport on the implementation of the system of collecting and uploading the geotagged and time-and-date-stamped photographs of relevant public works to be laid before each house of parliament once in every session6 the union ministry of statistics and programme implementation shall—40duties of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation(a) ensure that the especially created website referred to in section 5 is userfriendly and any person can, as far as possible, easily find out the geotagged and time-and-date-stamped photographs of a specific public work;(b) ensure that the photographs are presented in a manner that makes it easy fora person to compare the monthly progress that may have been made for a specific public work;45(c) lay down guidelines and standards to ensure that no attempt to transmit orupload incorrect information regarding the geotag or time-and-date-stamped information succeeds; and(d) monitor technological developments to ensure that the most accurate way of presenting the progress of public works through geotagged and time-and-date-stamped photographs is implemented57 (1) every central government body shall, within one month of the coming into force of this act, designate an official, not below the rank of director or equivalent, who shall be responsible for ensuring that the central government body processes and transmits photographs as specified under section 3(2) where the central government body fails to fulfil its obligations under section 3, the official designated under sub-section (1) shall be liable to—10(a) pay a fine of rupees one thousand per day for delay, beyond the periodspecified in section 3, in processing and transmitting the photographs; andpenalty for failure to perform duties by designated officials responsible for processing and transmitting the geotagged and time-anddate-stamped photographs(b) such other disciplinary action as the central government may deem appropriate:15provided that no penalty shall be imposed if the official proves that the failure to fulfil the obligations under section 3 was due to circumstances beyond his control 8 (1) the union ministry of statistics and programme implementation shall, within one month of coming into force of this act, designate an official not below the rank of joint secretary to the government of india, who shall be responsible for ensuring that the union ministry of statistics and programme implementation uploads the photographs on an especially created website as specified under section 520(2) where the official designated under sub-section (1) fails to fulfil his obligations under section 5, he shall be liable to—penalties for failure to upload geotagged and time-and-datestamped photographs by designated official of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation25(a) pay a fine of rupees one thousand for every extra day it takes to publish the photographs, after the day by which the photographs were supposed to be published; and(b) such other disciplinary action as the central government may deem fit: provided that no penalty shall be imposed if the official proves that the failure to fulfil the obligations was due to circumstances beyond his control309 (1) where a central government body fails to transmit the photographs, as required under section 3, to the union ministry of statistics and programme implementation, the ministry shall communicate the same to the union ministry of finance35(2) the union ministry of finance shall ensure that no further funds are issued for the concerned relevant public works until the ministry of statistics and programme implementation certifies that it has received the delayed photographs and a report from the central government body about the reasons for delay in transmitting the photographscommunication about failure of transmitting geotagged and time-and-datestamped photographs of projects by central government body protection of action taken in good faith10 no suit or other legal proceedings shall lie against any person in respect of anything which is in good faith done, or intended to be done, under or in pursuance of the provisions of this actpower to make rules11 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of the act40(2) every rule made under this act by the central government shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule5 statement of objects and reasonsundertaking public works is a key function of the central government the expenditure of public money on such works demand that the highest standards of accountability be attached to them unfortunately, there are numerous instances of public works languishing in delays and deadlocks in many cases, the entities responsible for timely completion of the required public works present a wrong picture of the progress they are achieving this can mislead both the public and the authoritiesa significantly improved sense of accountability would arise if the above mentioned entities are required to submit geotagged and time-and-date-stamped photographs of the progress they are making with the public works on a monthly basis geotagging and timeand-date-stamping are effective ways of not only ensuring that the photographs are of the relevant public work, but also of enabling interested citizens to check and confirm the progress for themselves this will usher in a significantly more responsible utilisation of public moneyhence this bill financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for procuring and transmitting of geotagged and timeand-date-stamped photographs of public works to the union ministry of statistics and programme implementation clause 5 provides for creation of website and uploading of timeand-date-stamped photographs to give access to public about the progress of public works undertaken by central government bodies the bill, therefore, if enacted, is likely to involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that an annual recurring expenditure of about rupees one hundred crore will be involveda non-recurring expenditure of about rupees twenty crore is also likely to be involved memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 11 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purpose of the bill as the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative power is of a normal character———— a billto provide for better accountability in public works undertaken by the centralgovernment through regular publication of geotagged and time-and-date-stampedphotographs of the progress being achieved in such works————(shri baijayant panda, mp)gmgipmrnd—36l(s3)—16042016