Babus on time after setting up of biometric machines

Installation of biometric attendance machines has dramatically changed the working environment in Delhi government offices such as VAT Department, Directorate of Health Services and Delhi Secretariat. For the first time government officials are strictly adhering to their office hours. From 5 May, machines have started to function at every office.

According to Delhi government’s Services Department, principal secretaries and secretary-level officers have been exempted from bio-metric attendance system. Long queues of government employees were seen at morning and evening hours, as all of them rushed to register their attendance on time.

The Public Works Department has installed 26 biometric attendance machines in Delhi secretariat. These machines were also installed at the other Delhi government offices.

‘If anyone fails to complete their duty hours, a show cause notice will be issued to the employee. In case of dissatisfactory answer, a half-day casual leave will be deducted from leaves available to them. Repeated offenders will be marked absent on days when they do not complete duty hours,’ said a senior Delhi government official.

In many departments where the employees don’t have much work, many of them were seen watching videos online, surfing the internet and talking over the phone. The canteens were seen flooded with employees during the lunch hour and many of them stayed back gossiping about the new attendance system. 

However, some exceptions were also witnessed at the secretariat. Departments like PWD and chief secretary’s office were functioning till late in the evening. Right at 6 pm, biometric machines were seen surrounded by scores of government employees. 

The installation of biometric attendance was ordered by former law minister Somnath Bharti and Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung has recently issued a notification, which made such systems mandatory at all government offices.