With coronavirus cases on rise, DDA employees want biometric attendance system discontinued

A large number of government organisations had switched to biometric attendance system a few years ago to ensure transparency in the procedure and weed out fudging of attendance records by their employees.

While a majority of government and private organisations have discontinued biometric attendance systems due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) continues to stick with in their offices. With the rise in coronavirus cases in the national capital, DDA employees want the land-owning agency to discontinue their use.

The DDA employees union is planning to take up the matter of discontinuing biometric attendance system with the administration on Monday, March 16, 2020. (PTI File)

“Till Friday, we were asked to mark our attendance using biometrics. When we opposed it, officials told us that there have been no orders to discontinue their use,” said a DDA employee requesting anonymity.

On Saturday, DDA announced it has decided to shut three of its public swimming pools that had been operational till recently. “When they can shut swimming pools, why can’t they discontinue the biometric attendance system? Chances of contracting the infection are very high, as people are scanning their fingerprints on the same machine,” another employee said.

The DDA employees union is planning to take the matter up with the administration on Monday. “We will demand that the biometric attendance system be immediately discontinued and we should switch to marking attendance in registers till the situation normalises,” said Param Yadav, president of the employees union.

A senior DDA official in charge of the attendance system said, “We have kept sanitisers near the biometric machines. We had recently shifted to this system and people are still getting used to it, which is why we are continuing with it. We will soon review it.”

On March 5, the Delhi government’s health department had asked all government and public sector undertakings to discontinue their biometric attendance system in the wake of the spread of the coronavirus in the city.

For the past 10 days, most government institutions are registering attendance manually.

A large number of government organisations had switched to biometric attendance system a few years ago to ensure transparency in the procedure and weed out fudging of attendance records by their employees.

The south and east Delhi municipal corporations have directed all offices, schools and hospitals under it to immediately discontinue biometric attendance systems. “This is being done for the safety of our staff. Till March 31, attendance will be registered manually,” said a senior South Delhi Municipal Corporation official.