P Chidambaram to pull up babus for indiscipline

Babus working in the ministry of home affairs in north block, New Delhi, have had a hard time since the installation of biometric attendance machines last year. Now, their misery is bound to increase.

The home ministry has said it will punish workers who reported or work late, skipped office or stayed out of it for long periods.

The ministry has found that several employees did not record their attendance despite the introduction of the biometric machine. The ministry did not reveal how many employees violated rules since absentees vary from month to month (people are away on training, tours or on leave).

Rules specify that any person who is late by 10 minutes thrice a month loses a casual leave. The purpose of introducing the system was to make sure that workers put in eight hours of work a day and 40 hours a week.

The idea of setting up a biometric system of attendance came from home minister P Chidambaram. He installed the first such machine on September 1, 2009, to make people punctual and accountable. Since then, 21 machines have been installed in the ministry.

Bureaucrats in India are not known for being punctual, but the machines did push some of them to walk the extra mile and report on time for work and skip office less often. Bureaucrats are expected to be in office at 9 am and leave at 5:30 pm. They also get a half-hour lunch break in between.