Two years on, LIT draws flak over non-functional attendance machine

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, December 11

The Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) has invited trouble for itself for its failure to make operational the biometric attendance machine installed in the office a long time ago. The machine has been lying defunct for quite some time. The employees still mark their attendance manually.

Taking cognisance of a complaint filed by the secretary of Council of RTI Activists, Arvind Sharma, to the government (on October 18, 2018), the Directorate of Local Government Department, Punjab, through its memo (no. S2-DLG-TSC-2018/66204-5 dated November 20, 2018) has asked the Regional Deputy Director, Local Bodies, Punjab (at Ludhiana), to take necessary action in this regard and send the action taken report to the directorate.

In his complaint lodged with the Principal Secretary, Local Government, and the Director, Local Bodies, Sharma has alleged that the biometric attendance machine, installed about four years ago at the LIT office, has not been functioning for the past more than two years.

He has alleged that a few employees and officials had vested interests in keeping the machine non-functional. “Those coming late in the morning and leaving early in the evening to catch buses/trains for the journey back home are convenient with the manual attendance system,” says the complainant.

Sharma has further claimed that information obtained by him from LIT under the Right to Information Act has revealed the erratic pattern of attendance of several employees and officials.