Govt fixes Republic Day deadline for Aadhaar biometric attendance system in central govt offices across India

NEW DELHI: The government has issued orders that all central government offices across India will now have an AADHAR Enabled Bio-metric Attendance System ( AEBAS) by the next Republic Day.

The offices will include attached and sub-ordinate Central government offices across India but will not cover the state government offices. "The system will be installed in the offices located in Delhi/ New Delhi by 31st December 2014. In other places this may be installed by January 26, 2015," the DOPT has said in an order issued on Friday. The biometric system has already been operationalised in many government offices in Delhi and the attendance is monitored and displayed online.

The government has also stipulated that disciplinary action may also be taken against government servants "who are habitually late" and specified that early leaving from office is also to be treated in the same manner as late coming to office.

"Biometric attendance system is only an enabling platform. There is no change in the instructions relating to office hours, late attendance etc. which will continue to apply. "Half—a-day's Casual Leave should be debited for each day of late attendance, but late attendance upto an hour, on not more than two occasions in a month, and for justifiable reasons may be condoned by the competent authority," the DOPT has specified.

"The manual system of attendance may be phased out accordingly. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) will provide the technical guidance for installing the system. These orders come into force with immediate effect. All Ministries/ Departments are requested to bring this to the notice of all concerned," the DOPT order has said.