The new initiatives of revised IAY Guidelines are as follows: (i) Addition of new beneficiaries: Under IAY, priority is to be given to families of the manual scavengers, including those rehabilitated and rehabilitated bonded labourers. Habitations of PTGs and beneficiary families of Forest Rights Act are covered on priority. (ii) Provision for administrative expenses:: Upto 4% of the funds released can be utilised for administering the scheme, of which upto 0.5% can be retained at the state level and the balance shall be distributed to the districts. (iii) Difficult areas re-defined. Apart from North Eastern States, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir which are hilly States, other State Governments can also identify difficult areas within their States, keeping the unit as Gram Panchayat. This would require approval of the EC. (iv) Convergence of IAY with other schemes: As per Government decision, IAY beneficiaries are to be given priority for assistance for construction of toilet. Funds from Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan (NBA) to be made available. Construction of toilet along with IAY house is now mandatory. IAY Scheme has also been converged with other social sector schemes like RGGVY, DRI Scheme, Janshree Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana. (v) Construction of multi-storeyed building: In congested localities where the cost of land is very high, the beneficiaries will be allowed to construct multi storeyed buildings where each floor will be given to one family, but shall not exceed three floors including the ground floor. (vi) Social Audit: For better accountability of the scheme, Social Audit is to be strengthened. It is a continuous and ongoing process, involving public vigilance and verification of implementation of the scheme (vii) Enhancement of role of State: Greater role has been provided for state in allocation of district wise targets, distribution of administrative cost to districts, identification of Difficult Areas, Provision for Support services, promoting Alternate/Green technologies and facilitating Mobilisation of additional resources. Gram Panchayats also have important role in the actual implementation of the scheme. (viii) IAY Management Information System (IAY-MIS): A Software ‘AwaasSoft has been launched in July, 2010. AwaasSoft is a local language enabled workflow based transaction level Management Information System to facilitate e-Governance in the system. The system is designed to make it accessible to all Stakeholders including the beneficiaries in the scheme. Awaassoft has nine different modules designed to capture all the transactions that would be required in implementation of the scheme. (ix) Dissemination of appropriate building technologies: States should proactively identify appropriate building technologies focusing on use of local materials. These are to be conveyed to the beneficiaries through booklets, pamphlets, videos, models and prototypes built in accessible locations. (x) Capacity Building: States to prepare a capacity building plan to strengthen the quality of implementation. The capacity building plan should have the following elements:- (a) Training of district level officials; (b) Training of cutting edge level functionaries; (c) Training of trainers especially for Community Resource Persons, masons and other extension workers; (d) Orientation and training of Quality Monitors (e) Training of elected representatives of Panchayats (xi) Transfer of Technology: The States must put in place a system for transfer of technology. This can be done best through utilization of Community Resource Persons (CRPs) suitably trained for this purpose availing services of reputed NGOs. The CRPs and NGOs have to closely work with the beneficiaries as well as the local masons and help the beneficiary families to make a proper choice and later assist them in implementing it on ground.