Old habits die hard! Habitual latecomers at the Urban Development Ministry and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) Ministry at Nirman Bhawan reached late, only to be caught by their Minister Venkaiah Naidu during a surprise check early on Monday morning. This is the second surprise check the Minister has made since he assumed charge.
An annoyed Naidu ordered immediate installation of biometric attendance mechanism at the Urban Development, HUPA and Parliamentary Ministries, which report to him. The errant employees will be given show-cause notices, said a senior official from the UD Ministry.
Expressing unhappiness at the casual attitude of his staff towards punctuality, Naidu has also directed senior bureaucrats to visit both establishments daily to keep tabs on latecomers.
Not just this, from now on, attendance registers will be removed 15 minutes after “the due time of reporting” and latecomers will be marked absent. They will also have to forgo that day’s salary, the official said.
Starting at 9.10 am, Naidu went around the various floors of Nirman Bhawan, accompanied by UD Secretary Shankar Aggarwal and senior officials. When he saw that many of the seats were vacant he became upset as he realised that the warning he had issued during a similar check last time had fallen on deaf ears.
Recently, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar had also taken stern action against nearly 40 people in his department for coming late. He asked them to apply for casual leave because they did not report to office on time.
The Ministers’ move comes following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus on punctuality and mantra of delivering “maximum governance and minimum Government” with stress on reducing delays, cutting red tape and swift disposal of files.