Taking a tough stance on the casual approach of senior IAS officers, the State Government on Thursday decided to issue show cause notices to Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and other senior officials, who are not adhering to the practice of marking their attendance through biometric system. The Government also decided to initiate departmental action against them if they do not adopt the system.
A communiqué issued from the Chief Secretary’s office stated that apart from the IAS officers, IPS and IFS officers will also be subject to departmental action in case of non-adherence to the Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system.
It said that the matter had recently been reviewed and it was found that a large number of senior officers, including the Chief Secretary himself have been marking their attendance regularly. However, some officers were not marking their attendance. This system is a priority for the State Government as a tool to improve the work culture and ensure delivery of citizen-centric services.
Senior officers, who work much beyond their office hours, must use the system to set an example by leading from the front. They also must ensure compliance through the ranks in the departments under them.
According to the CS office, instructions to this effect have already been issued a number of times. Even the Chief Minister has himself personally reviewed this issue. So, the government has now decided to issue show cause notices to all Principal Secretary, Secretary-level officers who are not marking their attendance as to why departmental enquiry should not be initiated against them.
It has been decided to fix responsibility on each departmental head to ensure that all officers and employees under them are marking their attendance, it said.
Although officials of the personnel department could not divulge the number of officers not marking attendance regularly, sources said that few senior officials were ignoring the government instructions. The attendance system will soon be connected with government treasury through which salary deductions would be made in case of default.
A senior official said that the decision to issue show cause was taken after repeated instructions failed to move babus, who did not deem it necessary to mark attendance and the government would take punitive action if they still fail to adhere to the order.