Biometric attendance in offices

Under “Chalta Hai” culture, though sounding strange but not prosaic,   there used to be “Cap – Coat” proxy of recording Haziri in some Government offices practiced by some employees not very long back. Under this system, an “over smart” employee with a gifted acumen,  after an hour or so of his showing in the office would be off for the entire day  but keeping back his cap or his coat on the table and the chair respectively to “show” he was very much in or around the office. The extreme picture, on the contrary,  at the same time would also be of those institutions where strict labour laws and personnel policies were in vogue like in banks where  employees of all ranks   would enter the office in the early  hours of the day and leave only when the sun had set or even beyond and ensure the work assigned was fully done with no arrears whatsoever, carried forward.
In fact, the first thing an employee does immediately entering his or her office is to sign a muster roll, which is manual, the standard form of  which, otherwise,  mentions the time of reporting and  the time of leaving. He or she is required to mention the time of reporting as well as leaving which should never be less than the fixed time unless duly authorized following a written or even an oral request. The “Chalta Hai” syndrome works here also, as the authority or the officer in charge normally ignores and summarily condones late coming and early leaving which not only discourages punctuality but encourages  loss of net working hours which cumulatively works to whooping amount of salaries and wages paid but without putting in the requisite hours of work. To overcome this, biometric attendance has been introduced in most of the Government offices  across the country and almost in all PSUs and in the Private Sector. Jammu and Kashmir Government, curiously had not embarked upon introducing this simple but effective tool of marking attendance in offices by the employees.
It is a matter of great satisfaction that the State Government has, now, ordered implementation of biometric attendance system in all Government offices with immediate effect. The decision, even if taken belatedly, deserves commendation and all the support from the public who have to visit Government offices periodically for various issues and matters. It hardly needs to be emphasized that the system needs all compliance from the employees. That the Government means “business and urgency” in its implementation can be well gauged by the instructions issued to link drawing of salaries , wages etc in respect of the month of June 2018 and onwards with employees enrolling themselves with the biometric system.
Biometric attendance is not manual, is not time consuming, is absolutely easy and is based on identification and verifications through physiological characteristics like finger prints etc and is known as biometric authentication. The system even captures voice as record to identify verification. This system, therefore, has numerous advantages besides ensuring punctuality and circumventing any crafty proxy in marking of attendance in the offices. The State Government has brought all PSU employees, contractual, casual or any type of employees drawing salaries and wages from the public exchequer, under the ambit of the new attendance system.
The concept of “No work, No wages” emanates from the main principle of full wages only for full work done  and full work done can be expected only when one puts in one’s efforts for the entire number of hours one is contractually or otherwise under service rules bound to comply. Coming late to the office and / or leaving early or extending break hours of lunch etc constitutes gross violation of this basic principle which this biometric attendance system addresses.
We, in this connection, expect that the requisite devices are procured as early as possible and installed in Government offices so that the deadline fixed by the Government for its implementation is not violated. This new system shall undoubtedly infuse a new work culture associated with commitment towards the assigned duties and functions, an employee is expected to adhere to for which one is employed and paid from the public exchequer.

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