Balurghat: In a bid to ensure regular attendance of the Panchayats personnel, South Dinajpur district administration has taken up an initiative to install a biometric attendance system in all the Gram Panchayats (GP) in the district.
District Magistrate Ayesha Rani has issued an order regarding the matter already and instructed the GP offices to install a biometric attendance system for the employees.
After receiving the order, the concerned authorities of all 64 GP offices have started installing the new attendance system.
According to an official source, once the biometric machines are installed, the concerned authority of the GP office will keep a track on the attendance of the employees.
"There are a number of complaints regarding the GP personnel for their irregularities in attending the offices during office hours and the common people are being harassed quite frequently. To put an end to such malpractices, the district administration has decided to set up the biometric machine in each of the GP offices," said the source.
The source said biometric attendance has been made mandatory for employees in the GP offices.
"Due to the pandemic, the district administration has taken up a decision to install face-biometric attendance system in order to avoid community infection," the source said, also adding the new system will not be applicable for the public representatives.
As per the DM's order, the entire process of installing the new attendance system will be completed by the end of July and Rs 20,000 has been allocated for each GP office for installing the machine.