Taking a serious note of ‘late lateefi’ of babus, the Delhi Government has warned all its employees to come in time to their respective offices by 9.45 am, failure of which might attract disciplinary action. There were reports that officers/officials of Delhi Secretariat come late and depart before 6 pm. Following the directions of Chief Secretary MM Kutty, General Administration Department (GAD) is preparing a list of departments and such officers/officials and employees. A circular to this effect has been issued to all departments.
Chief Secretary MM Kutty has earlier convened a meeting of all Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of departments and conveyed that department’s head will have to ensure punctuality of their staff and employees.
The Chief Secretary pointed out that large number of the officers/officials of Delhi Secretariat are not observing punctuality in attending the office. He directed Secretary (General Administration Department) to keep a watch on the attendance and to ensure that all the officers/officials working in Delhi Secretariat mark their attendance through biometric attendance system /IRIS system by 9.45 in the morning.
“Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries may ensure punctuality in their departments and if an officer/official is a habitual late comer, then action may be taken against him/her as per rules. The progress achieved will be reviewed at next meeting,” Kutty said at the meeting. After the meeting, Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries directed their subordinates to come office by 9.45 in the morning daily.
Sources said that it has been observed that most of the employees of this department are adhering to the office timings i.e. 9.30 am to 6 pm with lunch break 1.30 pm to 2 pm, but several senior officials are not maintaining punctuality while coming to the office, overstay lunch break and leave the office before the stipulated time.
GAD’s in its circular sought details on total number of employees, percentage of employees making attendance through biometric system, percentage of staff marking attendance between 9.30 am and 9.45 am and percentage of staff leaving office at 6 pm. The GAD also asked all departments of Delhi Secretariat to provide information regarding bio metric attendance for the month of November immediately.
A senior Government official, however, stressed it was important not to lose sight of the fact that babus in Delhi were working more hours than before and more than their counterparts in many States.
It is noted that then Chief Secretary SK Srivastava had installed biometric attendance system to ensure punctuality of officers and employees of Delhi Government in 2014. The biometric attendance system is only an enabling platform and there is no change in the instructions relating to office hours, late attendance etc.
As per existing instructions, half-a-day’s casual leave should be debited for each day of late attendance, but late attendance up to an hour, on not more than two occasions in a month, and for justifiable reasons may be condoned by the competent authority.
It is also learnt that most of the employees do not come on time in Delhi Government offices. This glaring fact was revealed at audit of punctuality conducted by Delhi Government in 2012. As per audit report, Delhi State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC), transport, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and education departments were among those departments where majority of employees found late during audit. It was also observed that employees come at 10.30 or 11 am and left for home prior 6 pm. “In Government job, employees take it casually, if their department has nothing to do with public dealing,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.