There were eight biometric machines at the office but due to Covid, marking attendance was stalled here following which proxy attendance incidents were coming forth in manual marking. (Express File) CHANDIGARH HOUSING Board (CHB) employees will have to get their faces scanned to mark their attendance, something that will put an end to proxy attendance in offices.
In order to check discrepancies in the attendance of employees, the board has decided to install face scanners to mark attendance at the office. CHB will be the first office in the Chandigarh Administration to use this method of attendance.
Earlier, biometric system was installed to mark attendance. However, due to the pandemic, the biometric system was stalled and attendance was being marked manually. In that case, there were incidents of proxy attendance.
A senior official of the board said two face scanners have been purchased. “One face scanner has the capacity to scan around 1,000 faces at a time. While one scanner has been installed in Block A, the other one has been installed in the other block. One scanner has been purchased for Rs 18,000,” the official said.
In 2018, the then CHB secretary had observed that employees were not observing office hours. The UT Secretary, establishment, has written to all administrative secretaries, heads of departments, boards, corporations and institutions of UT Administration, stating that office hours were not being observed properly.
In a letter to the heads, then secretary Jitender Yadav said, “It has come to the notice of the administration that the office hours are not being observed by the employees working in different offices of the Chandigarh Administration. It is therefore requested to ensure that the office hours are strictly observed by employees working in your offices.”
Yadav had further said: “Office hours are from 9 am to 5 pm and lunch break is only from 1 pm to 1.30 pm. Then secretary had specified
that in the opening office hours, “there will be a grace period of only 10 minutes subject to satisfaction of branch in-charge, but it should, in any case not be a regular practice”.
Prior to this letter, as many as 100 employees of the Chandigarh Housing Board were issued warning notices by then chief executive officer of the board. The CEO had even found most of the employees missing during office hours, resulting in public dealing being hampered.
On checking data for the past one month, senior officials found that these 100 employees, who had been served notice, were not reaching office on time. He had said that the employees are supposed to reach at 9.10 am but records showed that all of them were marking their attendance after 9.30 am only.
Biometric system is used by the employees to mark their attendance. There were eight biometric machines at the office but due to Covid, marking attendance was stalled here following which proxy attendance incidents were coming forth in manual marking.
Prior to this incident, during a surprise inspection, the then CEO had found over 200 employees reaching late because of which public
dealing suffered. Following this, he shot off a letter to all of them. Then CEO had found that public dealing did not even start till 9.40 am.