Odisha enforces biometric attendance for govt employees

Bhubaneswar: Odisha government has decided to enforce the biometric attendance for the government employees of all departments to ensure their timely attendance in their respective offices. The General Administration and Public Grievance (GA&PG) Department has issued a notification in this regard.

The state government, however, has exempted staff deployed in the Secretariat of the Governor, the Offices of the Chief Minister and Ministers from these instructions.

As per the official notification, all the departments of the State government have been requested to install necessary equipment like biometric attendance systems, wherever not installed already. Wherever such systems have been installed, Departments must ensure they are functional. The biometric data should be linked to the Biometric Attendance System Portal developed by NIC and must be analysed by a designated officer of the Department on a fortnightly basis.

Here are the key measures the government has taken to ensure timely attendance of the public servants:

• Every employee is expected to record his/her ‘Office In’ as well as ‘Office Out’ time in the Biometric Attendance Recording Device. Non-recording of ‘Office Out’ time may be treated as absence from duty for the day.
• Employees are expected to come to office by the prescribed In Offices, where employees are required to attend on roster basis, the head of office shall issue office order to that effect and the time mentioned therein for reporting shall be treated as the prescribed time. Instructions contained herein shall apply mutatis mutandis in respect of the said employees.
• Delay up to a maximum span of 30 minutes, on any day with a cumulative of three days in a calendar month may be condoned by the Head of the Office or the Officer duly authorized for the purpose, thereafter, for every three days of late attendance by any employee, the employee will be liable for deduction of one day’s Casual Leave from their Leave Account.
• Considering the fact that, many employees have to work for prolonged and late hours in the evening and sometimes even on Public Holidays in the interest of office work, in such cases, the employees will be eligible for non-imposition of such penalties for late attendance, if any, with due approval of the appropriate Authority as mentioned.
• In accordance with government instructions, every employee is expected to attend office at least for 30 hours [Except during days of business notified to be conducted during Morning Hours in each working day.
• No penalty shall be imposed for Non recording of Office In/Office Out time for any genuine reasons such as on official tour, official work outside of the office premise on orders by Competent Authority.