AP Govt to implement biometric for the Secretariat employees

Amaravati, Sept 16: The Andhra Pradesh State government has decided to implement the biometric attendance system for the Secretariat employees from Saturday.

The Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary, and every employee working in the Secretariat has to mark his or her attendance through the biometric system.

Mr. Naidu said on Friday "The biometric attendance will come into force on Saturday".

"Through the biometric attendance system, the government intends to record the working hours. It also wants to bring every department under e-Pragati. Every Tuesday, the progress and effective implementation of e-Pragati would be reviewed," he said.

The government has observed that the level of absenteeism is quite high. In a study, it found that about one-third of the employees were absent during May.



Since then, the government has been contemplating taking corrective measures to improve the attendance. In a bid to enforce full attendance in the Secretariat, the government has been toying with the idea of a biometric watch. But the employees have been resisting it.

Most of the employees haven't shifted their families to Vijayawada or Guntur. They have been shuttling between Hyderabad and Amaravati.

As a result, the Secretariat often turns empty by noon every Friday and the employees turn up late on Monday. Also, one finds vacant tables in many offices in the Secretariat. The employees keep off their desk on one pretext or the other.