3K staffers of 167 Haryana colleges skip biometric attendance, notices sent
Ravinder Saini
Rohtak, July 11
The Department of Higher Education (DHE) has begun tightening the noose around employees who don’t comply with the mandatory biometric attendance marking.
According to sources, 3,086 teaching and non-teaching employees at 167 government colleges across the state did not mark biometric attendance on Tuesday.
- In Rohtak district, around 50 staffers of Pt Neki Ram Sharma College, 42 of Government College (GC) Women, 20 of GC-Meham, 13 of GC-Lakhan Majra and six each of GCs in Sampla and Jassia were among those who did not mark their biometric attendance on Tuesday.
- There are 8,485 teaching and non-teaching employees in colleges across the state and only 5,399 of them marked their biometric attendance that day
Taking a serious note of this, the DHE has issued show-cause notices to the colleges where these employees work and has directed their principals to ensure a reply to the notice. As per norms, every employee at government colleges is bound to mark attendance twice a day — on arrival and departure.
“In Rohtak district, around 50 staffers of Pt Neki Ram Sharma College, 42 from Government College (GC) Women, 20 from GC Meham, 13 from GC Lakhan Majra and six each from GC Sampla and Jassia were among those who did not mark their biometric attendance on Tuesday. There are 8,485 teaching and non-teaching employees in these colleges and 5,399 of them marked their biometric attendance that day,” claimed an anonymous source.
Sources said the DHE had, three days ago, issued an advisory to principals of all government colleges and commanding officers at NSS units, directing them to ensure all employees marked their biometric attendance every day.
“All officials will inform their reporting officer prior to taking leave; otherwise, their salary will be deducted while considering the leave as an absence period,” stated the orders issued by the DHE on Monday. Following which, the DHE on Tuesday directed the principals of all government colleges to submit reports of the biometric attendance of all employees, on the basis of which show-cause notices were issued on Wednesday.
“The DHE initiated the move after receiving complaints of several employees coming in late or leaving early, thereby deliberately missing the biometric attendance, which is examined only when the higher authorities conduct a surprise inspection once in a blue moon,” said a college teacher. He added that since there was no practice in the past to check biometric attendance routinely, several employees took it for granted and marked their attendance as suitable for them. Some college principals, too, were following this practice. But the strictness now had created a stir among such employees, he said.
The teacher said those employees who mark their biometric attendance regularly were in favour of a weekly or monthly check of attendance to maintain discipline and uniformity.
