Wednesday 8 October 2014

Bio-metric Attendance System for Bureaucrats: Did Modi Invent it?

For last few days, there has been a rush for reporting about a new website attendance.gov.in, simultaneously making a concerted attempt to prove that PM, Narendra Modi, is the brain and hand behind it. Definitely, we have to give it where it is due. It is a very good initiative to track the bureaucrats at work. 
All of us might not be able to keep an eye on the website, but it would serve as a stick for the lax bureaucrats and hopefully improve service delivery. 

For guaranteed service delivery to the citizen and ensuring accountability, I think Modi govt must quicken the process to push the UPA brain child, "Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011" in parliament. Coupled with this, the bureaucrats would also be productive instead of finding ingenious ways to remain in office and play cards inside office. 

Let me pull myself back to the original idea behind the blog. The point, I essentially wanted to make was that, this bio-metric attendance system is nothing to do with the fertile mind of Modiji. In fact, this has been an old idea, implemented at several central govt departments as well as several state governments have also implemented it or in the process to implement it. 

Some sample of such things are provided below:





Yes, in 2007, Gujarta Govt started bio-metric attendance pilot project in tribal schools and in 2009 HCL was awarded a project to implement it in 7000 schools. They have also implemented it for checking the availability of traffic police at traffic junctions. 
But, I did not come across any instance when the bio-metric system is used at secretariat or any other govt offices.

What the central govt has done today, one of the poorest state govt, Jharkhand has done several months back. 

You can check the POLITICAL COLOR of the Jharkhand Govt. :) Yes, it is also AADHAAR linked. Do you know who is implementing it even if it can be an act of contempt of SC judgement not to recognize AADHAAR because of the lack of parliamentary nod to its proposed bill? It is none other than Mr. Ram Sewak Sharma the director general of UIDAI from 2009 to 20103. (He himself bio metrically profiled Mr. Modi on 1 May,2012.) 
One interesting thing comes up while I write this. Remember, BJP and the stance it had against AADHAAR. BJP called it a fraud and what not. You can enjoy more of such adjectives against AADHAAR during the election campaign in the following links:



In nutshell:

  • BJP opposed AADHAAR vehemently on all political forums
  • Modiji is not the pioneer in implementing bio-metric attendance system at his office
  • UPA initiated the move towards such a system in central govt offices
  • Jharkhand govt (Supported by Congress) is first to come up with the portal for the AADHAAR linked bio-metric attendance system; not MODI govt. 
So, the myth has to be dispelled that Modi is the mind behind such a move. It is another instance of how Media is helping Modiji to take the credit for a UPA initiated program. 

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