Chandigarh administration mulls biometric attendance at private colleges

After implementing the Department of Personnel orders for mandatory Aadhaar Enable Biometric Attendance System at local government colleges, the Department of High Education (DHE) is planning to ask the private colleges to also follow suit.

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In February, the Department of Personnel had asked all departments, boards, corporations under the UT Administration to implement the biometric attendance, and in March the government college authorities began the process.

As the new session in local colleges begins this month, the DHE is now considering asking the private colleges to follow the same attendance system. Several private colleges affiliated with Panjab University are not directly under the DHE, but are relevant to higher education in Chandigarh considering receiving aid and technical guidelines besides following the lines of the University Grants Commission.

“The discussions are most likely to start next month with the higher officials in the department (DHE). Our office may have already written to the private colleges, but the department will be involving the private college managements only after discussing the matter with the higher authorities. Since local colleges partially functions under the banner of DHE, the rule shall be ideally extended to all the educational institutions but we cannot just ignore the UGC guidelines as well. We have to wait till next week,” said a highly placed official, requesting anonymity.

Meanwhile, the plan has received a mixed response from the heads of the private colleges. Though many appreciated the introduction of the programme, they opted to remain tight-lipped when asked about its implementation in their respective colleges.

“It’s a positive development. Technological development helps in transparent and efficient governing system,” said a head of a leading college of Chandigarh. However, when asked about its implementation, the official opted to stay out of any controversy. “The biometric attendance system was stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic, and now if the higher authorities want to restart it at local colleges…we will welcome the decision,” added another principal.

“An intimation regarding the same has already been sent to colleges. However, they are yet to take interest in this, as they must have referred it for consideration of government employees. The faculty at local government colleges have already downloaded the required apps and uploaded their specifications,” said a faculty of private college.