Law ministry tries to override biometric norms

Dec 12, 2010 - Nitin Mahajan |

New Delhi

The Union law ministry, which has the mandate to advice other government ministries to follow legally established norms in the country, is itself busy trying to find ways to override government guidelines on biometric attendance system which was implemented in all government offices in view of heightened security threats.
Senior officials in the law ministry are in for special treatment as they have been exempted from biometric attendance system which registers fingerprints of department officials. In an order issued this week the ministry has exempted all its joint secretaries and above ranking officials from marking the attendance biometrically.
Sources stated that the step comes despite the fact that the government has asked all its ministries to ensure that biometric attendance system is followed religiously to ensure tighter security and timely arrival and departure of officials. The fingerprint registering biometric attendance system was implemented in all government departments and ministries after the 2001 Parliament attack to ensure tighter access control at these offices.
“All officials of the rank of joint secretary and above will be allowed to use a smart card instead of using the fingerprint based biometric system of attendance,” the directive issued by the ministry stated. All joint secretaries and above ranking officials of the law ministry have instead been given smart cards to log in their attendance.
It is understood that the need for issuing smart cards to the senior officials was felt after several of these officials expressed their displeasure to mark their attendance through fingerprints on the department biometric system. “A few officials even complained that they had to often stand in line with other ministry officials to mark their attendance. While a few claimed that there was problem with the machine as it didn’t register their attendance,” a senior official stated.
Another official pointed out that biometric system of attendance was introduced in government departments to ensure that there was no malpractice in registering the attendance.
“However, with smart cards being issued to senior officials the entire concept of implementing a fingerprint registering biometric system of attendance has now been defeated,” sources stated.

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