Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy today said disciplinary action would be taken against government staff coming late after he found that most were not present in their seats during his surprise visit to the Chief Secretariat here.
Office time begins at 8.45 am daily in Puducherry and Narayanasamy arrived at 9.30 am.
The chief minister visited each department accommodated in the multi-storied Chief Secretariat.
He spoke to the staff present and ascertained that around 70 per cent of the staff were yet to arrive. Narayanasamy also found that the bio-metric system of registering attendance was non-functional.
He told newsmen later that the staff were "lax and take their own time to arrive at the office and this late arrival dislocates the routine disposal of the files."
He warned the late comers of stern disciplinary action and said he would keep paying such visits along with his ministerial colleagues in future also.
Narayanasamy's visit followed complaints from people that staff in several departments did not turn up at offices on time.
"We spend a big chunk of funds for payment of salaries and allowances and have implemented the Seventh Pay commission report," he said.
"Late arrival of staff is affecting routine disposal of files which is not acceptable. Stern action would be taken against the late comers," he said.
This is the second time that the Chief Minister is paying surprise checks to ascertain punctuality in attendance.
He had made such visits last year to cooperative banks and other cooperative undertakings.
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