It is infused into the minds of the public that any government work takes a lot of time. Files keep rotating among different desks for months. People have a strong belief that the ones in government jobs are very reluctant.
Thus, to change this scenario, the Centre has put in place a stricter rule to discipline the ‘sarkari babus’.
What Is The Stricter Rule?
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the coordinating agency of the Central Government in personnel matters has made it compulsory for all employees, including senior officers to mark their attendance by using the biometric attendance system by 9.15 a.m. latest.
This rule aims at cracking down latecomers, allowing a maximum delay of only 15 minutes. According to this mandate, a half-day casual leave (CL) will be deducted for the ones arriving late. However, getting late for up to an hour, on not more than two days that too for justifiable reasons will be considered by the competent authority.
Following the re-opening of workplaces after the lockdown imposed by COVID-19, it was reported that a lot of people had stopped using the biometric scanner for marking their attendance. This rule is to correct that.
The circular issued by DoPT has ordered the employees to send an advance notice and application for casual leave if they are not able to come to work on a particular day.
The times of the Central government offices generally are from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. However, the problem of junior-level employees, especially those in public-facing roles, arriving late and leaving early has been cited a zillion times. This causes a lot of inconvenience for the general public.
Read More: How To Get A Government Job As Per National Recruitment Agency’s CET
The Problems This New Rule Is Going To Deal With:
The DoPT directive aims to deal with the laxity in implementing the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS). The Centre said that the data relating to punctuality and attendance of an employee should also be taken into account while considering them for important assignments, training, and transfers or postings.
“In addition to debiting CL (or Earned Leave, when no CL is available), disciplinary action may also be initiated against government servants coming to office habitually late as it amounts to ‘misconduct’ under the CCS(Conduct) Rules, 1964. Early leaving is also to be treated in the same manner as late coming,” the DoPT informed.
Senior officers have voiced concerns about not having fixed office hours. They stated that they usually leave after 7 p.m. and that post-Covid they often work from home, including on holidays and weekends.
According to the order, it has been “reiterated that all MDOs (ministry/department/organisation) will regularly monitor the attendance reports.“
The advisory also revealed that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had rolled out face-based authentication applications using Android or lOS-based phones. This will offer robust features like faster authentication, live location detection, and geo-tagging, among others.
Nodal officers were asked to configure a personal mobile policy in the attendance portal for the employees and get the geo-coordinates fed into the entry locations of the office.
“Habitual late coming and early leaving of office should be viewed seriously and discouraged. Action against the same may be initiated,” said the DoPT directive.
In some departments, where IT-enabled faceless mechanisms are still being used, employees are known to skip offices or make only brief appearances. The directive by DoPT will annoy those accustomed to arriving at 10 a.m. or later. It also underscores the dire need for more careful supervision of attendance and punctuality by officers within their fields.
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: Business Standard, The Hindu, The Economic Times
Find the blogger: Unusha Ahmad
This post is tagged under: sarkari, general public, government jobs, government, IT, DoPT, UIDAI, Android, IOS, authentication, live location, geo-tagging, casual leave, earned leave, CCS Rules, 1964, AEBAS, Aadhar, biometric, attendance, punctuality, discipline, assignments, trainings, postings, transfers, senior officials, employees, Covid-19, lockdown, work from home
Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, or copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.
