Ludhiana municipal corporation’s faulty attendance system under scanner

Ludhiana: Rescue of a woman employee, who had been confined in an acquaintance’s house for almost two-and-a-half years, has brought back focus on the inefficient attendance system for sanitation employees in Ludhiana municipal corporation. Though missing from duty for such a long time, the rescued woman — Mamta — was being marked present in MC records, which meant she worked daily in the field.
The MC has got old system of manual attendance in place for sweepers and sewer cleaners who are supposed to work in the field daily. Officials suspect involvement of some MC employee behind Mamta’s flawless attendance chart when she did not turn up for duty for more than two years.
The MC officials claimed that they had planned a lot of measures for sanitation employees. There are over 9,000 such employees who are supposed to work in the field. Usually the attendance is marked on registers twice, and these employees gather at one place in their respective assigned areas for the same. Though their duty lasts for eight hours, residents complain that sweepers come only in the morning for two to three hours after which they become unavailable.
The MC in 2019 had planned to bring potable biometric attendance machines for employees to mark their attendance.
There was also a proposal under which GPS-enabled smart watches were to be distributed among the sweepers as well as sewermen to track their movement. However these ideas remained only on paper as several unions opposed the system and threatened to go on a strike. The MC authorities thereafter dropped the plans.
One of the senior officials in the MC said, “There is pressure of employees unions, which is why officials are unable to take any step. We also receive a lot of complaints, but cannot do anything except for issuing a warning.” He said some of the sanitation employees are working in the residences of officials and politicians.