Delhi govt employees take it easy under Prez rule

With the last elected government bailing out after 49 days and the Capital under President’s rule, state employees have, ostensibly, been taking it easy — showing up late for work.

With the last elected government bailing out after 49 days and the Capital under President’s rule, state employees have, ostensibly, been taking it easy — showing up late for work.

In an effort to keep a check on latecomers and absentees, the administration has decided to activate a biometric system of attendance from Wednesday.

Sources in the government said that even as the biometric machines were installed a few weeks back, the process of recording the data of employees at the Delhi secretariat has been speeded up after complaints were received of staff turning up late for work.

The system will become fully operational by this week at the secretariat. Other departments will be linked soon. The mechanism is expected to cover approximately 100,000 employees.

“The system was expected to be in place nearly two months ago, but since there was no elected government, the process got delayed. Earlier, the AAP dispensation had decided to introduce the mechanism, but the process came to a halt after it quit office. At the same time, due to the model code of conduct, elections had become the priority. During this period, complaints were received about employees not showing up on time and leaving early,” said a senior Delhi government official.

Sources in the administration said action would be taken against frequent latecomers, but the nitty-gritty of the penalties was still being worked out.

“We are looking at linking the biometric system to the salaries of the employees, and pay will be deducted if they continue to report late for work. The setup will help in increasing the output of workers,” added the official.

Chief secretary of Delhi SK Srivastava had, earlier, held several meetings reviewing the status of the system, and had set April 20 as the deadline for activating it. The Public Works Department and the General Administration Department are carrying out the operations of installation and initiation of the setup.