Gurugram: The Haryana government will soon distribute GPS-enabled smartwatches to its government officials to keep track of their attendance and real-time location during office hours. The announcement was made by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday while he was addressing a ‘Vikas’ rally at Sarmathla village of Sohna.Also Read - Fossil to Launch Gen 6 Smartwatch Today. Features and Specifications
“All government officials in the state will wear smartwatches that will track their movement during office hours as well as serve as a tool to mark attendance,” ANI quoted Khattar as saying during the ‘Vikas’ rally. It will mark a progression from the previous roster and the subsequent biometric system by eliminating loopholes that allowed attendance to be manipulated, the CM said adding that people somehow found ways to manipulate the biometric system as well. Also Read - Facebook May Soon Launch Its First Smartwatch with Detachable Camera: Report
The chief minister further stated that this new system of keeping a track of its employees will bring about “transparency and accountability in operations, and weed out fake, duplicate and false attendance”. Referring to the manual system of marking attendance in a register, Khattar said, “An employee would come to office after a week and put tick marks for all the days in the week in the attendance register. We introduced a biometric system after the formation of our government to bring discipline and regularise attendance of government employees.” Also Read - Smartwatches Could Help Detect Covid-19 Before Symptoms Appear: Study
“Some made fake fingerprints (using rubber) and gave it to another person for punching in their attendance in his/her absence,” the CM said. He added, “I asked my team to find a solution to this dual problem and… found a solution in ‘ghari’ (watches). The watches will function only in the hands of the authorised person. It will send the real-time location of the employees to the central control room and their attendance will be then marked.”
CM Khattar also spoke about development plans in the Sohna region. He said rail and road network was the key for development in the region. Khattar said about 5 rail and road corridors are coming out of the Sohna region, including KMP Expressway, Orbit Railway Corridor, Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, Western Dedicated Expressway, Gurugram-Alwar Highway. Industrial development in the Sohna region will ensure employment opportunities, he added.
“These networks will lead to all-round development and will generate employment which will also help increase opportunities as well as prosperity in the area,” he said.
Before addressing the rally, the CM unveiled a statue of Veer Shiromani Maharana Pratap in the village, measuring 23 feet. He also sanctioned an amount of Rs 125 crore for about 50 developmental projects in the Sohna constituency.