Get tough on biometrics, Haryana aided colleges told

Raviner Saini

Rohtak, July 29

The Department of Higher Education (DHE) has warned penal action against government-aided private colleges across the state if they fail to ensure compliance of regular biometric digital attendance of their teaching and non-teaching employees.

There are 97 government-aided colleges across the state. Sources claim the direction has been issued while taking action on complaints that many employees of such colleges do not remain present at the workplace during teaching hours.

“The DHE is serious towards ensuring the presence of teaching and non-teaching employees as well as students in the colleges during full working hours. Hence, every step is being taken to run this practice effectively. Following this reason, it had recently issued show-cause notices to principals of 167 government colleges as over 3,000 employees posted there did not mark their biometric attendance on July 9,” maintained the sources. Earlier, the direction for biometric attendance daily was issued to government colleges but now, aided colleges, have also been included in it.

“The general feedback is that the teaching and non-teaching staff are absent during teaching hours and colleges do not maintain proper record of the staff in spite of getting aid from the government. So, you are directed to ensure regular biometric digital attendance with immediate effect failing which penal action will be taken,” said a communique sent to the government aided-colleges from the DHE on Friday.

Dayanand Malik, president of a body of teachers at government-aided colleges, said they were ready to follow every step for improving the standard of higher education but when the DHE has imposed all conditions on aided colleges, then it should also ensure all those benefits to aided colleges as are being given to government colleges.

“The Revised House Rent Allowance has already been implemented for employees of all government departments, universities, board, corporation and all government-aided polytechnic colleges in the state from 2019 under 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) but government-aided college employees are still deprived of it. Moreover, we neither have medical facility nor death-cum-retirement gratuity (DCRG), while employees of government colleges are already availing such benefits,” Malik claimed.

He maintained that the state government was executing the New Education Policy (NEP) in aided colleges but then, more than 45 per cent posts of teaching (1,290) and non-teaching staffers (810) were lying vacant. “How can NEP be efficiently executed with acute shortage of employees in aided colleges? The government should lift the ban on recruitments so that all vacant posts can be filled,” he added.