Health Dept staff submit memo to Arti Rao against location-based attendance

Doctors and paramedical staff have submitted a memorandum to Health Minister Arti Singh Rao against the geo-fencing location-based attendance initiative of the Health Department.

Rao assured that she would talk to officers concerned in this regard, said Dr Rajesh Khyalia, president of Haryana Civil Medical Services Association.

On June 20, the Health Department had issued orders instructing all doctors and employees of the department to register their presence under the geo-fencing location-based attendance system, with salaries also linked with it.

The doctors and paramedical staff had termed these orders as impractical, arbitrary and violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution, as well as being contemptuous of the orders of the Supreme Court.

The employees’ unions said, apart from this, these orders were creating cyber-related problems for officers and employees.

They added that when officers and employees working in the Health Department were already marking their attendance through biometric means, there was no justification for them to register their presence under the new system.

It was also highlighted that these orders were being implemented only for the officers and employees of the Health Department, while no such system was being enforced in any other department of the state.