Govt introduces Aadhar enabled bio-metric attendance system

The Centre today decided to phase-out manual attendance system and use an Aadhar enabled bio-metric attendance system (AEBAS) in all its offices.
"It has been decided to use an Aadhar enabled bio-metric attendance system in all offices of the central government, including attached and sub-ordinate offices, in India," said an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Aadhar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the central government.
The system will be installed in the offices located in New Delhi by this year end. In other places this may be installed by January 26, 2015, it said.

The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) will provide technical guidance for installing the system, the order said.
The equipment will be procured by the ministries or departments as per specifications of DeitY on Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) rate contract from authorised vendors.

The expenditure will be met by the ministries or departments concerned. "The manual system of attendance may be phased out accordingly," it said.
The bio-metric 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, the order said.

As per existing instructions, 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.
"Disciplinary action may also be taken against government servants who are habitually late. Early leaving is also to be treated in the same manner as late coming," the instructions said.
All central government ministries and departments have been asked by the DoPT to follow the orders which comes into force "with immediate effect".