Babus oppose new attendance system

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, June 19

The babudom in Delhi has been taken aback with a new proposal of marking attendance. Proposed by the Delhi government, the new system would ensure that each official and employee of the government log in to a computer while coming to office and log off while leaving after office hours.

The new fully computerised system is being introduced as the other systems of marking attendance have failed miserably. This result - absenteeism and late coming to the office. Most of such default go unnoticed as there is no checks and balances in the present system.

For instance when the card punching system was introduced in the Delhi government it was thought to be a panacea to the ills plaguing the system. However, the delinquent officials soon found a mechanism to defeat the exercise. They used to hand over their cards to their subordinates who did the punching at the right time on their behalf.

Taking lessons from the past, the departments of General Administration and Administrative Reforms mooted the proposal of computerised log in and log off. An official explained, "each official from the level of chief secretary downward will have to log in to the system with their passwords to mark the attendance". After marking the attendance, the supervisor or any other official authorised to check the system would go through the list to see which official logged in at what time and whether he was absent on a particular day.

The pilot project of the proposal has already been implemented in two Delhi government departments. It would be extended to other departments in due course.

Due to the built in security system of the attendance, there is a lot of resistance amongst the babudom for the new system. "It is like a continuous supervision on our activities," an official explained. Another official in favour of the system said that the babus are against the system because it would put to an end the practice of leaving offices without prior sanction and being on leave without prior sanction. (2005)