Odd-even scheme fails to hit attendance

Numbers in central government offices higher than last Monday, but less than Friday's

The odd-even scheme, introduced by the Delhi government, did not have any significant impact on the attendance of employees in the hundreds of central government offices in the capital.

According to attendance.gov.in portal that publishes attendance statistics of over 500 offices under various departments and ministries in the capital, about 88,900 employees had marked their presence as of 5 pm. About 3,540 employees had reached office by 8am. The odd-even rule remains in force between 8am and 8pm. The attendance rose to 20,317 by nine before crossing the 80,000-mark around 10.30am. The presence graph showed sharp falls after 5pm dropping below 70,000-mark by 5.30 pm.

The number was slightly higher than attendance numbers reported on previous Monday, when 78,900 employees marked attendance. However, it was less than Friday, when only cars with odd numbered registration plates were allowed on road.

While the attendance number stayed around the 75,000-mark between December 29 and 31, it had shot up to 94,105 on January 1. Business Standard summed up the previous week's data from the line graphs on the portal that gave separate numbers reported through tablet based devices and PC-based devices. For example, on January 1, tablet-based attendance was 77,542 and PC-based attendance was 16,563 adding up to 94,105.

These numbers are based on attendance marked by employees with Aadhaar numbers through the tablet and PC-based biometric devices installed in these government offices. An employee at the portal's office confirmed that these are numbers for central government offices in Delhi and added that historic data beyond what is published on the portal was available, but could not be shared.

The portal reports a higher number of attendances under "department verified" category, which could include employees that did not have Aadhaar and offices that are yet to install biometric systems. On Monday, this number stood at over 110,000.

Based on this department verified numbers, of the 525 offices for which data was reported on Monday as many as 43 offices recorded 100 per cent attendance. Another 242 offices reported attendance of between 90-99.9 per cent.

Office of the commissioner of service tax, which is located in the IP Estate, was among the largest offices with all 519 employees reporting for duty. All 463 employees of Central Government Health Scheme, North Zone, in New Rajinder Nagar, were present on Monday.

Electronic Media Monitoring Centre under the ministry of information broadcasting (261) , Soil and Land Use Survey of India (260), CGHS, headquarters (221) were other large offices with 100 per cent attendance.

Over 100 organisations, which between them employed over 12,500 people, recorded zero attendance. Just one employee among 12,483 registered under Delhi Development Authority was marked present suggesting that the biometric reporting has not fully caught on. The website said it was still in beta version, meaning that it was still in the test mode.

The reporting was even worse delhi.attendance.gov.in, the portal for the state government organisations. Only 506 employees from four offices - the department of health, district magistrate West District, Delhi Urban Shelter Development Board and South Delhi Municipal Corporation - were registered in the portal. Of these, only 130 employees marked their presence on Monday. Historic data was not available for this website. None of the employees registered under DUSDB (271) was marked present on Monday, so was the lone employee registered under the SDMC.