No more kiddy gloves: Authority links attendance to salary release

Dimapur, Jan. 28 (EMN): The government of Nagaland has linked the biometric attendance records to whether or not workers’ salary would be released, for officers and staff posted at the Nagaland civil secretariat in Kohima. The attendance record will now be taken into account for the authorities to decide if they will release the workers’ salary.

Employees who are yet to register for the attendance system are ordered to compulsorily do so not later than February 10, updates have stated.
The department of Information Technology & Communication and the Home department have put up biometric devices at various locations in the Nagaland Civil Secretariat, updates stated. Employees are now to mark their attendance both when coming to the office and when leaving after the working hours.

The government publicity agency the department of Information and Public Relations (IPR) gave updates on Monday informing about the development.
The report stated that the authorities had noted that the majority of the government employees had been ‘avoiding’ using the biometric devices to mark their attendance in spite of their being registered in the Aadhaar-based attendance system.

It has now been decided that every employee including officers who have registered in the Aadhaar-based attendance system shall mandatorily mark their attendance in the biometric device, both when coming to the office and while leaving after the working hours.
The IPR reported that the attendance record of every employee as had been marked on the biometric device will be extracted and provided by the department of Information Technology & Communication to the Home department for scrutiny.

‘The Home department will scrutinize the attendance record, and if felt necessary, seek the comments of the concerned administrative head of department, and with the approval of the chief secretary forward the names of only those employees whose attendance have been found to be satisfactory to the bill and cash branch, Home department for initiating the processing of salary of such employees.’

The parameters for deciding ‘satisfactory’ attendance for any employee, besides daily attendance, will also include maintenance of office timing which is 9:50 am to 4:00 pm, the IPR stated.

“The salary of all those employees whose attendance have been found to be unsatisfactory/poor, will not be processed and the list of such employees will be transmitted to their AHODs for the information of those employees.”
“Every employee, whose salary has been withheld, will be required to submit written reasons to the Home Department, as to why action should not be taken against the employee for the poor/unsatisfactory attendance. The Home department after scrutinizing the reply of every such employee, with recommendations will put up to the chief secretary for taking a decision on releasing the salary, or for enforcing ‘no work, no pay’ or/and, taking any further action as deemed fit, which may also include initiation of disciplinary proceedings.”

The new arrangement will come into effect from February 1 2020, the IPR stated.
Employees who are yet to register for the Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system are to compulsorily register with the facility by approaching the biometric attendance control room of the directorate of IT & C, 2nd floor, next to NIC (M7085404509, 9856692445), not later than February 10 2020, the IPR stated.
“Such employees in the meantime will continue marking their attendance in the registers maintained in their respective departments under the supervision of the concerned AHOD, and after getting registered, every employee will immediately start marking attendance on the biometric devices,” the IPR stated.

“In case the employee concerned fails to apply for registration for the Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system with the directorate of IT&C by the 10th of February 2020, his/her salary will not be processed for the month and further action as deemed fit may be taken against such employee with the approval of the chief secretary,” the updates added.