Coronavirus: Centre reverts to registers, suspends biometric attendance

The Centre on Friday decided to exempt employees from marking their attendance on the biometric system over concerns that it could end up spreading coronavirus, or COVID-19. The biometric system was introduced in 2014.

An order issued on Friday by the department of personnel and training (DoPT, the government's human resources manager, exempted employees from using the machine till March 31.

"However, all the employees are required to mark their attendance in the attendance register (as done prior to launch of biometric system) during this period," the order issued by DoPT's Ajay Kumar Singh said.

Singh's circular said the exemption was being made as a precautionary measure though only a small number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases - 31 confirmed cases - have been reported in the country.

"But keeping in view the nature of the virus, it is a must to take all possible preventive measures to stop the spread of the virus," the department said.

"It is learnt that the most common method of transmission of virus seems to be through infected surfaces. therefore, it is desirable to avoid touching surfaces, which might be infected due to human touch," it said.

The Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system was introduced at the instance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had claimed soon after that it had brought about a change in the work culture in the government.

According to the online monitoring of the biometric attendance system, about 1.2 lakh people had marked their attendance via this system on Friday.

According to this website, attendance.gov.in, employees on an average start their day at 9.33 am and wrap up by 5.40 pm.

(Inputs and image from hindustantimes.com)