The Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) which is the coordinating agency of a central government in personnel matters and also a watchdog of the government for ensuring certain standards and norms, has taken a bold step in maintaining the punctuality of employees. DOPT has released a circular that says employees have to reach their office by 9:15 AM.
DOPT has also cleared that for any reason if the employee is not able to attend office, he or she should informed earlier and casual leave should be applied for them.
The table behind the scene:
DOPT notification has not come out of the blue. The timeline behind the circular is following.
● After winning the general election of 2014 Narendra Modi led the NDA government to bring in an Aadhar-enabled biometric attendance system to record the attendance of all government employees before the NDA attendance system was manual.
● Due to COVID-19, the system was paused in 2020
● The mechanism was later resumed in February 2022, But it was seen that many employees were using an old manual system.
● Now DOPT circular has made it compulsory to use only an Adhar-enabled biometric attendance system.
The Justification: Why Timely Attendance is Essential and Beneficial
Government offices are open from 9 AM to 5:30 PM but government employees are infamous for their late coming and early leaving.
Now DOPT’s circular has clearly said that “Habitual late coming and early leaving of office should be viewed seriously and discouraged”. Apart from that
DOPT has made it mandatory to use an Aadhar-enabled biometric attendance system.
Using technology in maintaining attendance records will be surely more transparent and accurate. Using an Aadhar-enabled biometric attendance system will leave no scope for flaws. This will surely make the government employees more punctual and sincere.
According to the report, the circular has asked employees to inform in advance if they are unable to attend office on a given day. This will also control the arbitrary behavior of government employees.
DOPT notification is surely going to improve efficiency in government functioning.
Inside Government Employees’ Concerns
Most Senior officer’s main concern is that they often work beyond their fixed working hour. They also complain that after post-COVID covid most of the working files are available online.
Sometimes employees have to work from home even after completing their office hours.
Final thoughts
There is no doubt that the DOPT initiative is bold and for better efficiency of government. On the other hand voice of government employees should not be neglected completely. Their feedback and concerns should not be overlooked. Only by listening concerns of employees, a positive work atmosphere can be created. Which is more important to improve efficiency in comparison to making a strict schedule.
